
fe.s O K4Jl 
Book_ ^ 



r'y 



O 



PX^ 






A SKETCH 



OF THE 



INTERNAL CONDITION 



OF THE 



UNITES STATES OF AMERICA, 



AND OF THEIR 



tpolitfcal telatConi^ toiti^ fSuropr* 



A SlCETCH 



OF THE 



mTEHXTAL GSOXTDITIOIT 



OF THE 



^i7!£>3f:i^ @i?i.f ig m LMim^Ai 



AND OF THEIR 



POLITICAL RELATIONS WITH EUROPE. 



B7 A XtUSSIAXT. 



fnAKBLATED FROM THE FREJfClJ, 
BIT AN AMZSXIICAI?. 

WITH NOTES. 



Ualttmore: 

PUBl^ISHEt) BY E. J. COALE. 

B. EDES, PRINTER, 
1826. 

3- 



District of Maryland — to wit: 

BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the third day of August, in the fiftieth year of the Inde- 
pendence of the United States of America, Edward J. Coale, of the said District, hath deposited 
in this office the title of a book, the right whereof he claims as proprietor, in the words follow- 
ing, to wit: 

"A Sketch of the Internal Condition of the United States of America, and of their Political Re- 
lations with Europe. By A. Russian. Translated from the French, by an American; with notes." 

In conformity with the Act of the Congress of the United States, entitled, "An Act for the en- 
couragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts and books, to authors and 
proprietors of such copies during the times therein mentioned;' and also to the Act, enti- 
tled, ''An Act Supplementary to the Act,entitled.'An Act for the encouragement of learning, by 
securing the copies of maps, charts and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, 
during the times therein mentioned,' and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of design^ 
ing, engraving, and etching, historical, and other prints." 

^ *' ^' PHILIP MOORE, 

Clerk of the District of Maryland. 



PUBIiISHER'S PREFACS. 

A COPY of the following volume was re- 
ceived, by the publisher, directly from the au- 
thor. It was immediately translated from the 
French, in which it was originally written, that 
it might be. offered without delay to the Ameri- 
can public. The rapidity with which this was 
executed, will be an apology for any inaccura- 
cies that may be discovered. The notes are 
meant for a further illustration of the distinguish- 
ed author's opinions, and an explanation of such 
as may, from the change of circumstances, seem 
to be erroneous. His mistakes are so few and 
slight, that it would be scarcely necessary to no- 
tice them, if we did not suppose, from the dis- 
tinguished author's impartiality and information, 
that such corrections would give him pleasure. 
Many alterations, both in our condition and poli- 
cy, have ensued since the work was written. 



publisher's preface. 



which we find from the date of the authar's pre- 
face (accidentally omitted in the translation,) to 
have been at Washington, in February, 1823. 
The acquaintance with our laws, manners and 
customs, which he displays in the following 
sketch, and the equal justice with which he 
notes our merits and our faults, will do him honor 
with the liberal and honest. In his praise he is 
never indiscriminate, in his censure never harsh 
or fretful: and his profound acquaintance with 
our country, and due appreciation of our institu- 
tions, must surprise us in a man, born and bred 
under others so entirely dissimilar. 



CONTBNTS. 

First Section. 
general Considerations. page 5 

Second Section. 

Chap. 1. Extent of Territory, - - - . 19 

Chap. 2. Population, 22 

Chap. 3. The American Confederation, - - 36 

Chap. 4. The Federal Government, _ - _ 43 

Chap. 6. The Army, ------ 52 

Chap. 6. The Navy, 66 

Chap. 7. Finances, 60 

Chap. 8. The Political Relations of the United States with 

Europe, 69 

Third Section. 

Chap. 1. Administration of Justice, - - - 73 

Chap. 2. Penitentiaries. 93 

Fourth Section. 

State of Society, - - - - - - -103 

Appendix, containing notes. ----- 139 



PREFACE. 



The materials of this work were originally 
collected during my first residence in the Unit- 
ed States of America, in the years 1810, 1811, 
and 1812. On my return to Europe in the last 
mentioned year, I had not leisure to commit 
them to writing, being too much engaged in the 
memorable events which caused the destruction 
of the French Army in Russia; events, which, 
to use such an expression, duty required me to 
follow, and which in fact I did follow, until the 
dissolution of the Congress of Aix de la Chap- 
elle about the end of the year 1818. 

A second residence of three years in the Unit- 
ed States, whither I returned in 1819, gave me 
an opportunity of correcting and developing the 
views I had previously taken of that country; 
and the extensive excursions I made into the in- 
terior, were with that object alone. 
1 



11 



Comparing then my first impressions with the 
result of my subsequent observations, I found 
but little difficulty in discovering the imperfect- 
ness of my former labour; for during the inter- 
val of seven years w^hich had elapsed between 
my two visits to the United States, the changes, 
or to speak more accurately, the improvements 
in all the departments of domestic economy, 
surpassed the most sanguine calculations of po- 
litical prophecy. Wretched villages, which I 
had left in the midst of impenetrable forests, 
had assumed the appearance of flourishing towns. 
Cultivated fields had taken the place of heaths, 
which not long before seemed impassible, and 
over ground, which could scarcely be traversed 
in country wagons, mail sAges were to be seen 
whirling along w^ith the greatest rapidity. Such 
changes are particularly remarkable in the 
western part of the State of New York. 

A metamorphosis so sudden and striking, con- 
vinced me of the uselessness of sw^elling out this 
work with details purely statistical: for as long 
as the United States continues to offer so great a 
disproportion between the number of its inha- 
bitants and the extent of its territory; and the 



Ill 



astonishing fertility of the soil in many sections 
of the country, to repay liberally the labour of 
the cultivator; it is certain that its statistics 
will always in their details, be liable to impor- 
tant alterations. It will therefore be difficult for 
an exact and scrupulous observer to give a satis- 
factory view of a country, subject at every mo- 
ment to changes more or less obvious. 

I think it therefore proper to apprise my read- 
ers, if this work should be fortunate enough to 
have them, that they will not find in it, statistical 
details sufficiently copious to affi3rd a complete 
view of the actual physical resources of the 
United States. They will likewise, vainly seek 
for private anecdotes in which loungers so much 
delight. 

In this view of the political and social condition 
of the United States, the reader will find noth- 
ing but facts, which, being permanent in them- 
selves, will, for a long time to come, appear still 
the same to the most superficial observer. 



A SKETCH 



OP THE 



iMTsmiTAm ©©irmraa^M 



OF THE 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 

FIRST SECTION. 
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 

From the irrevocable recognition of the polit- 
ical independence of the United States of Amer- 
ica, by the Treaty of Paris, of 1783, until to- 
wards the present time, the world has seen them 
prosper with a rapidity without example in the 
history of the most civilized nations. 

Natural and immutable causes, joined to others 
entirely accidental and transient, have concurred 
in producing the extraordinary developement of 
industry, in a country so recently emancipated, 
and so far from the great focus of civilization. 



6 

Among the permanent causes, we must assign 
the first rank to the geographical situation of the 
United States, which gives them all the advanta- 
ges of an insular position, in regard to external 
security, without excluding those which result 
from the possession of a territory immense in ex- 
tent and susceptible of every species of culture. 
To be perfectly secure in the peaceful enjoyment 
of this vast and beautiful domain, the North 
Americans never had nor have they now any 
other but tribes of Indian hunters to contend 
with, which daily and visibly diminish by the 
necessary effects of their precarious and wander- 
ing life. The great extent of fertile lands, and 
the abundance of the means of subsistence in 
the United States are the more favourable to 
the population, as it is naturally active, la- 
borious and enterprising. Thus have we seen 
it double itself in the space of twenty years suc- 
ceeding the war of their Independence. This 
single fact in their statistical annals, has not since 
been repeated. 

To this principal cause of the so rapidly in- 
creasing prosperity of the United States, we 
$hould undoubtedly add the salutary influence 



of a government as imperceptible in its progress 
as in its operations. Here, locality has again 
been favourable to that country. The ab- 
sence of all immediate neighbourhood that could 
be dreaded, enables them to afford to their re- 
publican institutions all the latitude w^hich the 
opinions and prevailing habits of the people 
could claim. Wisely judging that the existence 
of a standing army would badly accord w^ith the 
genius of a popular government, they have re- 
duced it to a handful of men, so that they have 
no cause to apprehend any serious inconven- 
ience to the safety or tranquillity of the Ameri- 
can Confederation. 

Their civil and political lav\rs have been con- 
ceived in a spirit eminently calculated to guard 
individual liberty. Such must be the case in a 
country, in which, since its first colonization, the 
hatred of political or religious persecution has 
been transmitted from age to age as a revered 
tradition. 

It is well known that the first colonists who 
came to the United States, were men who had 
abandoned their own country to seek refuge 
from the civil troubles with which England was 



agitated about the middle of the seventeenth 
century. Many of them fled from the reli- 
gious persecution, to which the English protes- 
tants were exposed during the reign of the Steu- 
arts. These colonists were the first legislators 
of the country. It is therefore natural that all 
their ideas, all their solicitude should be directed 
to the adoption of the most effectual measures 
against arbitrary and religious intolerance. In 
fact, among the first institutions and municipal 
laws which governed the English Colonists of 
Nojth America until their en[jancipation, we 
find the most protecting spirit of liberty and 
the most unlimited freedom of conscience. 
The war of Independence, commonly called in 
Europe the American War, effected but little 
change in these matters, because the sole object 
of that war was political Independence* and not 

*The principal, and indeed the only cause of the differen- 
ces between England and her colonies of North America, was 
the right asserted by the British Parliament and Government 
to tax the colonies without the consent of their local Legisla- 
tures. It is only necessary to read the petitions which the col- 
onists addressed to the King of England on that subject, and 
the declaration of their Independence promulgated on the 4th 
of July 1776, to be convinced that civil liberty had no agency 
in causing that celebrated war, and that political rights alone 
were the ground of hostilities. This assertion is confirmed by 
Dr. Franklin in his memoirs. 



9 

civil liberty, which the Anglo-Americans had en- 
joyed in an equal degree with their English 
brethren. 

So true is this, that when the rupture took 
place between the mother country and the col- 
onies, some of the thirteen confederated states 
retained their ancient constitutions granted by 
the British Government; and what is still more 
remarkable, these very states were considered 
more democratical than the rest. It will be suffi- 
cient to offer as an example the state of Connec- 
ticut, which, until the year 1818, had not chang- 
ed its original constitution under which polit- 
ical power was delegated but for six months. 

The state of Rhode Island to this very mo- 
ment is governed by a constitution granted by 
the Kings of England, (^pp. Note A,) 

Yet however powerful may be the action of 
these causes which we have mentioned, they 
are not adequate to the explanation of the devel- 
opement of the prodigious natural resources of 
the United States of America. Accidental caus- 
es have perhaps contributed more efficiently 
than the former. At the epoch of the French 
Revolution, the United States had just emerged 



o. 



10 

from numberless difficulties, against which they 
had struggled in consequence of the deranged 
condition of their finances which the sacrifices 
incident to their war of Independence had render- 
ed necessary; and by the inherent defects of a 
confederated goverament, badly defined in its 
powers, badly understood, and therefore badly 
administered. 

The Federal Constitution of 1788, which since 
that period has governed, and still continues to 
govern the Aiiierican confederation, without 
prejudice to the rights of sovereignty, reserv^ed to 
themselves respectively by the several states com- 
posing the Union, being better adapted to the 
wants of the country, looked to the most important 
objects and marked out for the general govern- 
ment, a safer course and a more regular action. 
Under the ssgis of this government as defective 
as it w^ould appear at the first glance, the United 
States have presented themselves to the nations 
of Europe to claim their part in the great com- 
merce of the world and the navigation of its seas. 
This participation w^ould have been inconsidera- 
ble, taking into consideration the spareness of thc^ 
population, the excessive dearness of every spe- 



11 

€ies of workmanship, without the long and bloody 
wars, of which the French Revolution w^as either 
tl^e cause or the pretext. Seeing nothing to fear 
from the eruptions of this political volcano, the 
North Americans profited by the misfortunes of 
Europe: and having by a series of favourable cir- 
cumstances, become the only neutral nation of the 
civilized world, they soon appropriated to them- 
selves the universal coasting trade, concurrently 
with the English, who ruled the seas, without 
being able nevertheless to subdue the coasts, from 
which they were constantly repulsed. Whether 
the neutral commerce or the coasting trade prov- 
ed most advantageous to the Americans, or to 
the other nations with whom it was carried on^ 
certain it is that the profits derived from it by 
the former were so enormous, that after having 
paid for all the consumptions of the United 
States, in foreign merchandise, there still re- 
mained enough to gratify the expensive taste of 
arising luxuriousness and the no less costly re- 
finements of fashionable life. 

The violent measures against neutral naviga- 
tion adopted at different periods, by the govern- 
ments of France and England, diminished some- 



12 

what the gains of the Americans by multiply- 
ing the risks: but they could not suppress their 
spirit of enterprise and speculation, because in 
the event of success, their profits amply compen- 
sated them for the hazard they were obliged to 
encounter. 

On the other hand, the war which took place 
in Spain, opened to the Americans a certain and 
lucrative market. During five or six years fol- 
lowing the commencement of the year 1809, 
the English, Spanish and Portuguese armies 
were supplied with provisions exported from 
the United States. The large profits they ob- 
tained at Lisbon and Cadiz, by the sale of Amer- 
ican flour, raised the price of that article to ten 
and eleven dollars per barrel in all the maritime 
cities of the United States. Mr. Pitkin, who 
for a longtime was a representative from Connec- 
ticut in the American Congress, and whose statis- 
tics of the United States are held in high es- 
teem for their accuracy, makes the American 
flour exported to Spain and Portugal during the 



13 



years 1812 and 1813 amount to the quantities 
stated below.* 

The influence of such high prices, kept up by 
circumstances during several years, on all branch- 
es of agriculture, or rather on the general in- 
dustry of the United States, may be easily con- 
ceived. Some statistical facts, drawn from the 
most authentic sources, hereto annexed, will serve 
to confirm our assertions. 



Number of Inhabitants, 
Value of Exports in dollars 
Tonnage — tons, - - - - 
Revenue in dollars, - - - 
Expenditure do - - - - 
Public Debt do - - - - 



In 1791 

3,921,326 

19,012,041 

602,146 

4,771,342 

3,797,436 

,75,169,974 



In 1801 

6,33 9,762 
94,116,926 

1,033,218 
12,945,466 

12,273,376 
,82,000,167 



In 1811 

7,239,903 
61,316,833 

1,232,602 
14,422,634 
13,692,604 
47,856,070 



This table is extracted from a work published 
in 1818, in Philadelphia, under the title of. 
Statistical Annals of the United States of Amer- 
ica, founded on official documents, commencing 



* To Spain; 



Flour in barrels. 
8,865. - - - 381,726. 
74,409. - - - 431,101. 

To Portugal. 

- 33,591. - - 667,218. 

- 214,126. . - - 542,399. 

These exportations for the year 1813 alone were worth on the 
spot, 11,213,447 dollars, and ought to have produced when sold 
at Market at least 15,000,000 dollars,— (76,000,000 roubles in 
Bank Notes.) 



1812. 
1813. 

1812. 
1813. 



14 

on the 4th of March^ 1789, and ending on the 
^Oth o/dpril^ 1818. By Adam Seybert, M. 
D. (Page 10.) (App. Note B.J 

This prospei*ous state of things did not begin to 
alter until the anti-commercial decrees of Napo- 
leon, and the scarcely less unjust and iniquitous 
British orders in Council were executed in all 
their force, not only on the high seas, but even 
on the coasts of the United States; and, if we 
may use the expression, within the very glare of 
the American light-houses. Nevertheless these 
inconveniences were diminished by means of 
licenses, which the French government then 
publickly sold, and which were obtained as easily 
in England, notwithstanding that government 
managed the affair with more apparent modesty 
and good faith. 

The war declared by the American govern- 
ment against England in 1812, in opposition to 
its own judgment, and solely to gratify the clam- 
orous demands of a powerful party actuated by 
personal considerations, a war awkwardly con- 
ducted by both parties, but which terminated so 
fortunately for the United States, was the first 
retrogressive step in their career of prosperity. 



i5 

It is difficult to estimate the disastrous conse- 
quences which the prolongation of it another 
year, would have entailed on the finances, agri- 
culture, commerce and navigation of the United 

States. 

The miraculous peace of Ghent, as the Amer- 
icans themselves call it, re-produced an extraor- 
dinary, although transient activity in the gene- 
ral industry of the country, or rather revived 
the extravagant spirit of speculation among the 
inhabitants. But the pacification of Europe en- 
tirely reversed the former order of things, whose 
operation was so favourable to the Americans. 
The changes which took place in Europe para- 
lized all the efforts they made after the conclu- 
sion of the Treaty of Ghent, to repossess them- 
selves of the advantages they had so long enjoy- 
ed in commerce and navigation. 

When the great avenues to these two sources 
of national wealth were opened to all the nations 
of Europe, and when they hastened successively 
to reclaim their share, that of the Americans di- 
minished as rapidly as it had increased. Of the 
truth of this assertion, facts extracted from offi- 



16 

eiai documents published by the order of Con- 
gress in 1821, will offer irrefragable proof.* 

All the maritime cities of the United States 
were glutted with European merchandise, 
whilst a portion of the products of the soil, such 
as corn and flour, for want of a market in Eu- 
rope, rotted on their hands. In consequence of 
the pacification this branch of commerce devolv- 
ed on Russia, From her ports on the Black Sea, 
Europe was supplied with provisions during the 
calamitous years of 1816, and 1817; and it is 
more than probable that Russia will, for a long 
time, continue to furnish the south of Europe 
with grain at least, for she can partially do so, 
at a much cheaper rate than the United States. 

The general distress which prevailed in the 
United States as well as in Europe, brought 
about by the too rapid transition from a long 



*The annual products of the United States were in 

1816 -36,306,022 dollars, 51 cents. 

1816 27,484,100 dollars, 36 cents. 

1817 17,524,775 dollars, 15 cents. 

1818 21,828,451 dollars, 48 cents. 

1819 -19,116,702 dollars. 

1820 15,005,320 dollars. 

, (Report of the Committee of ways and means, upon tht 

svbject of the Revenue February 1821.) 



17 

state of war to that of universal peace, was height- 
ened by the multiplication of Banks and the 
shameful abuses of which some were guilty in 
the employment of thdr funds. 

The disappearance of specie, the invariable 
consequence of too great an emission of paper 
money, the general distrust, the simultaneous 
stagnation in all branches of industry, the de- 
preciation of every species of property, the re- 
duction of salaries, were all the bitter fruits of 
unsuccessful and inordinate speculation,by which 
it was attempted to replace commerce in its for- 
mer prosperous condition. Having made enor- 
mous fortunes during the space of about a quar- 
ter of a century, either by the coasting trade or 
by other commercial enterprizes, the inhabitants 
of the United States persuaded themselves that 
this state of things would last for ever; and when 
the pacification of Europe restored commerce 
to its natural channels, the thirst after gain and 
the want of luxury had made too great progress, 
not to cloud the councils of prudence in the 
minds of the merchants. 

Such is, even at this moment, the internal con- 
dition of that country. A general depression is 
3 



18 

felt throughout the populous cities on the shores 
of the atlantic, as well as in the rising towns on 
the banks of the Ohio and Mississippi. Every 
where is heard the complaint of the hardness of 
the times, the depreciation of property, and the 
low price of the produce of the soil. 

But this state of suffering and depression can- 
not be otherwise than temporary, since all the 
natural means of prosperity which result from 
local circumstances, such as the extent of territo- 
ry, the richness and variety of its productions, the 
advantages of geographical position, possessed 
by the United States in an eminent degree,, re- 
main untouched. When the effects of a sudden 
transition from war to peace shall have ceased to 
operate throughout all the countries of the civil- 
ized world; when commerce and general indus- 
try shall have found their natural level; the part 
to be acted by the United States will be suffi- 
ciently important to assure them a distinguished 
rank among commercial nations, and to afford 
every requisite encouragement to her domestic 
agriculture. 

Geographical and statistical details of the Unit- 
ed States, will complete the sketch which we 
have marked out for ourselves in this work. 



SBCONB SECTION. 

CHAP. I. 

EXTENT OF TERRITORY. 

According to the maps made by American 
geographers since the treaty of Washington of 
the22d February, 1819, with Spain,* the ter- 
ritory of the United States, lies between 25" 50" 
and 49° 37" north latitude, and 10° east, and 48** 
20' west longitude, by the meridian of Wash- 
ington. 

The greatest extent of territory from north to 
south-east, is 1650 English miles; the greatest 
breadth from east to west, 2,700. Its super- 
ficies is computed to contain 2,379,350 square 
miles, or 1,522,784,000 acres. 

Anterior to the treaty of Washington of 1 809, 
with Spain, the superficies of the territory of 

*This treaty, although shortly after ratified by the Senate and 
President of the United States, was not immediately approved 
by the Court of Madrid. Nevertheless, the Americans flatter 
themselves that it will ultimately be concluded; and it was 
^nder this belief and corresponding to its provisions, that the 
last edition of the general map of the United States by Melish, 
published in 1819, wg,s drawn. 



£0 

the United States, as stated by Blodget, was 
1,280,000,000 acres; but the authority of this 
author has always been doubted, and his cal- 
culations are evidently much exaggerated. By 
Mr. Blodget's estimate, the quantity of cultivat- 
ed lands in 1809, did not amount to more than 
40,000,000 acres. 

In 1783, the period of the recognition of the 
Independence of the United States, their terri- 
tory, according to Mr. Hutchins, formerly geo- 
graphical engineer to the Government, is repre- 
sented to have contained but 640,000,000 acres, 
on a length of about 1250 English miles, and 
a breadth of 1040. By this same authority, 
51,000,000 acres were covered by rivers, lakes, 
streams, Slc. 

The United States have therefore acquired 
triple the extent of their original territory, since 
their political Independence. 

A considerable portion of these acquisitions 
was derived from the purchase of Louisiana, 
which the Fi^ench Government, in consideration 
of fifteen millions of dollars, transferred to them. 
The limits of this province not having been as- 
certained at the date of the sale, the American 



21 

Government took advantage of the uncertainty, 
and have since pushed their boundaries west- 
w^ard as far as the Pacific Ocean. Previous to 
the session of the Floridas, on the 22d Febru- 
ary, 1819, their pretensions to the mouth of the 
Columbia river, rested alone on that foundation. 

It may also be asserted that a vast quantity of 
land has been extorted from the Indians, either 
by force or under the semblance of formal con- 
tracts. This unfortunate race, the legitimate 
ovrners of the whole soil, finding themselves 
closer and closer hemmed in by the Americans, 
either buried themselves in the depth of their 
forests, abandoning their possessions without an 
equivalent, or ceded them for a small fixed com- 
pensation, which frequently consisted merely of 
woollen clothing, fire arms, brandy, corn and 
some trifling pecuniary annuity. 

Throughout the whole topography of the 
United States, you are struck by the breadth 
and depth of the rivers even when they are of 
no considerable length; hence the small eleva- 
tion of the mountains, the loftiest of which is 
not higher than one thousand to twelve hundred 
feet above the level of the sea. 



22 



CHAP. 11. 

POPULATION 

In this immense territory there are but frotn 
nine to ten millions of inhabitants, exclusive of 
the tribes of Indian hunters, whose number 
could never be computed with any degree of ex- 
actness. We only know that their tribes form 
an inconsiderable part of the whole population 
of the United States; and that they rapidly di- 
minish by the natural effects of their course of 
life.* According to the census of 1810, the 



*The fourth census begun in 1820, but which was not com- 
pleted until towards the end of the year 1821, states the en- 
tire population of the United States at 9,637,999 persons of 
different ages and complexions, distributed in the following 
proportions: 



States. 


Inhabitants 


Maine 


298,335 


New-Hampshire 


- 244,161 


Massachusetts 


523,287 


Rhode-Island 


- 83,059 


Connecticut 


275,248 


Vermont 


- 235,764 


New- York 


- 1,372,812 


New-Jersey - 


- 277,575 


Pennsylvania 


- 1,049,451 


Delaware 


- 72,729 



23 



total population of the United States, was calcu- 
lated to be 7,239,903. We should not exagge- 
rate in saying that, independently of the Indians^ 
it amounts at this moment to 9,500,000 persons. 



Maryland - 


407,350 




Virginia 


- 1,665,366 




North Carolina - 


638,829 




South Carolina 


- 502,741 




Georgia 


340,980 




Alabama 


- 127,901 




Mississippi 


75,448 




Louisiana 


- 153,407 




Tennessee 


422,613 




Kentucky - 


664,307 




Ohio 


- 510,434 




Indiana 


147,178 




Illinois - - . 


- 55,211 




Missouri 


66,586 




Michigan Territory - 


8,896 




Arkansaw - 


14,246 




District of Columbia 


- 33,039 





Grand Total. - 9,637,999 

Of this total number, blacks, actual or emancipated slaves, 
together with freeborn persons of colour, amount to two mil- 
lions of persons. 
In 1822, Slavery was sanctioned by the following states, 
Maryland, 
Virginia, 
North Carohna, 
South Carolina, 
Georgia, 
Alabama, 
Mississippi, 



24 

Of ail the statistics of the United States the 
enumeration of its inhabitants aflfords to the ob- 
server the most exact and at the same time the 
most curit)us subject of enquiry. 

Since the achievement of the American In- 
dependence, the government has taken particu- 
lar pains to obtain an accurate knowledge of the 
population of the country. The practice of tak- 
ing a census, first established in 1800, is repeat- 
ed every 10 years, and the result of each esti- 
mate, with all the details necessary to shed light 
upon this important department of American 
statistics, published by the order of Congress. 

These official publications deserve the more 
confidence, as the central government of the 
United States have neither the means nor any 

Louisiana, 

Tennessee, 

Kentucky,, 

Missouri, 

The Floridas, 

Territory of Arkansaw, 

The District of Columbia. 
It is to be still found in the State of Delaware, New Jersey, 
and even in Pennsylvania and New- York; but the laws of the 
latter States have fixed a period for its entire abolition. 

In all the other States of the Union, slavery is prohibited by 
the laws. 



£5 

interest in withholding from the public, a full 
knowledge of the particulars of their internal 
administration. 

On their part, the citizens having no standing 
army to support, and scarcely any direct taxes to 
pay, have likewise no motive to induce them to 
elude the enquiries of public officers charged 
with the duty of enumerating the inhabitants of 
the country. 

The population of the United States is compos- 
ed of three distinct species of persons. 

1st. The aborigines or Indian hunters scatter- 
ed over the Western States. These, as we have 
before remarked, are inconsiderable in number 
and visibly diminish. 

2nd. The whites of European origin, who 
form a great majority of the population of the 
United States. 

3d. The blacks in all the variety of complex- 
ion of the African race. 

It has already been stated, that according to the 

last census of 1810, the population of the United 

States amounted to 7,239,903 inhabitants. Of 

this grand total, the whites constituted about six 

4 



£6 

millions. The black slaves, mulaltoes and free 
negroes, make together 1,377,810 persons. 

This population equally distributed over the 
whole surface of the United States, v^^ould allow 
about five and three-fourths of inhabitants to 
each German square mile. 

Ages will therefore elapse, before it will have 
acquired a density proportionate to the extent of 
tlie territory it is destined to occupy. 

According to Dr. Seybert, the population is^ 
divided among the different States in the Union 
in the following ratio, agreeably to the Census 
of 1810. 



state of New- York 

— — Virginia - 

— — — Pennsylvania 



Massachusetts - - ' S" 



■^^ o 



North Carolina - - ^\ ^ 
South Carolina - - ^\ 



!* 



' Kentuckj^ ----_'_. i^ 

— Maryland - - - - ^'- p^ 

* Georgia - - - - ^^ § 

■ New-Jersey - - - ^- ^ 

Ohio ----- ^1^ ^ 

' — Connecticut - - - ^^ p 

Tennessee " - - -3^? % 

New Hampshire - ^\ ^ 

— Vermont - - - - ^^ i 

Rhode-Island - - - _?^ 

Delaware - - - - ^^^ 

By the same author we are informed, that 
the free whites, from 1790 to 1800, increased 
■^^To% p. c. from 1800 to 1810, 35^?^?^ p. c; and 
during twenty years, embracing these two peri- 
ods, S5j%% p. c- 

The numher of free blacks and mulattoes in- 
-creased from 1790 to 1800, 185J^p. c.;from 



28 

1800 to 1810, I697V0 p. c; and in twenty yeai^, 
313/^Vp. c. 

Doctor Seybert attributes this extraordinary 
augmentation of the last mentioned species of 
population, to the manumission of slaves by their 
masters, and the desertion of the former, who, 
when they once arrive in the northern states, are 
considered as freemen. 

The slave population increased from 1790 to 
1800, '24j%\ p. c; from 1800 to 1810, 35 ^%\ 
p. c; and during these twenty years, 79 Viro P- c. 

The whole of the free and slave population in- 
creased from 1790 to 1800, 35 ^Vo P- c.; from 
1800 to 1810, 36-||o p. c; and during these 
twenty years 84tVo P- c; (Seybert, page 24, 25.) 

To extend further our researches on this head, 
w^ould be an act of supererogation. The facts 
which have already been quoted, are sufficient to 
authorize the conclusion, that population in the 
United States multiplies rapidly, and that it will 
continue to do so in the same proportion, as long 
as there are fertile and vacant lands in abund- 
dance. 

Whilst on this subject, it may not be useless to 
remark, that after the census of 1 8 1 0, more than 



29 

half the population of the United States, consist- 
ed of persons above sixteen years of age; and be- 
fore we take leave of it entirely, some general 
observations respecting the black population may 
not be irrevelant. 

In every condition of civilized society, or where 
it approaches civilizatidh, slavery, however ame- 
liorated it may be by the operation of laws and 
customs, is an absolute evil; because it is in the 
nature of slavery, as in every other usurpation 
of right or abuse of power, to retard civilization 
by cramping the developement of the moral facul- 
ties with which the Supreme Being has endow- 
ed mankind. This evil assumes a character, dan- 
gerous in another way, in a country, where ci- 
vil liberty is incessantly invoked — where every 
thing is done in its name and for its perpetuation. 

Such is the case with the United States, where 
blacks either actually in slavery or emancipated 
from it, compose nearly the sixteenth part, if not 
more, of the whole population. Hence the in- 
convenience of slavery is the more serious, as na- 
ture herself has placed an eternal barrier between 
the two classes, which, in the United States, stand 
towards each other in the relation of master and 



30 

slave. The difference of colour and conformation 
of face, oppose insurmountable obstacles to their 
gradual emancipation. Nevertheless, it is going 
on rapidly in the United States. By thecensus of 
eighteen hundred and ten, the number of black and 
free persons of colour was one hundred and eigh- 
ty-six thousand four hunHred and forty-six. Yet 
it is precisely this portion of the inhabitants that 
must be regarded as the most troublesome and 
dangerous. The reason is plain. Like their 
brethren in slavery, the free blacks and mulat- 
toes are not only exiled from the society of the 
w^hites, but excluded from all participation of 
power, by virtue of common usage; for the law 
does not recognize any difference of colour, nor 
does it establish any distinction, except that of 
master and slave. Consequently it is very natu- 
ral that the hostility existing between the free 
blacks and the whites, should be more inveterate 
than that of slaves towards their masters, the for- 
mer being completely subjected to their controul; 
for the free blacks knowing the delights and ad- 
vantages of liberty, and living in the midst of free 
men, must frequently experience those mortify- 
ing and humiliating sensations that disdain and 
contempt never fail to inspire. 



31 

The inconvenience of such a population is 
generally felt throughout the country. Nor is 
it pretended to be concealed, that in the event of 
an insurrection on the part of the slaves, they 
w^ould look for leaders among the free blacks. 
With a view to obviate this danger, laws have 
been framed throughout all the United States, 
where slavery subsists. In Virginia, especially, 
a law is in force, by which all manumitted slaves 
are compelled to quit the Commonwealth.* 

The same policy has prevailed in the estab- 
lishment of the American Society for the colo- 
nization of free persons of colour. This so- 
ciety was formed about two years ago, and 
counts among its members the most distinguish- 
ed citizens of the several States of the Union. 
Its principal object is to get rid gradually of this 
class of human beings, by colonizing them on 
the Coast of Africa near the English colony of 



*Precautions, suggested by the same fears, have been carried 
even further in the State of Virginia. By legislative enactment 
it is forbidden, under heavy fines, and even corporal punish- 
ment, to teach black slaves to read or write. 



32 

Sierra Leone. In January 1820, the first expe-- 
dition of the colonists left the ports of the Uni- 
ted States for the place of their destination.* 
From all the calculations made concerning the 
population of the United States, it appears that 
the blacks increase in an equal proportion with 
the whites. This single fact is enough to put 
beyond doubt the good treatment which the 
slaves in general receive, for man like all other 
organized beings, does not multiply in a state of 
constant suffering. Slaves being regarded in the 
United States in the light of chattels, enjoy no 
political rights. Nevertheless, by a kind of 
anomaly which cannot fail to astonish at the 
first glance, it is a fact, that these selfsame slaves 
delegate that political power to others of which 
they themselves are destitute. This enigma is 
solved when we recollect that at the formation 
of the Federal Constitution in 1787, it was 



*Tlie unsuccessful termination of this first attempt at colo- 
nization, under the auspices of the society, scarcely permits the 
hope of a more fortunate result in future. Besides, the enter- 
prise is gigantic, and the means at the disposition of the society, 
extremely limited. It may be anticipated that the labours of 
this association, (so respectable in itself) will turn out like 
the cask of the Danaides. 



33 

agreed between the southern and northern 
States, that three fifths of the slaves in the for- 
mer should be considered as so many freemen, 
that is to say, that 500,000 negro slaves at this 
moment residents of Virginia, should be rated 
as 300,000 freemen. 

In virtue of this compromise, the southern 
States which tolerated slavery, have to this time, 
exercised a preponderating influence in the con- 
duct of national affairs. As a striking proof 
of this truth, of the five Presidents chosen since 
the adoption of the Constitution, four have been 
from Virginia.* 

From similar considerations, the question 
arose whether slavery should be permitted to ex- 





*THESE FIVE PRESIDENTS 


ARE, 


1st. 


Genl. Washington, - - 


Virginia. 


2d. 


Mr. 


Adams, - - - - 


Massachusetts. 


3d. 


Mr. 


Jefferson, - - - 


Virginia. 


4th. 


Mr. 


Madison, - - - 


Do. 


5th. 


Mr. 


Monroe, - - - . 


. Do. 



It must be remarked that Mr. Adams was President only 
during four years, whilst the rest (with the exception of the 
officiating president,) were so during two terms fixed by the 
constitution, or eight years. There is no doubt but that Mr. 
Monroe, who has not yet finished his first term, will be re-elect» 
ed for the second. 



34 

ist or prohibited in the new State of Missou- 
ri, so warmly debated during the present session 
of Congress, derived its importance. It has just 
been decided in favour of the toleration of sla- 
very; and in this way is a predominating influ- 
ence, for a considerable time to come, secured 
to the States which allow it. 

The population of the United States is distri- 
buted among them in the following propor- 
tions. 

Number of Inhabitants to each square mile. 

Connecticut . , . . 60 

Massachusetts . . . .54 

New-York . . . . 18 

Pennsylvania . . . .16 

" Virginia . . . .14 

Louisiana, less than, . . 2 

(^Melish's description of America.)'^ 

These statements will show the disparity be- 
tween the population of the United States and 
its territorial dimensions. 

Another observation may be proper in this 
place: it is, that the black population, notwith- 



*This distribution corresponds to the census of 1810. 



35 



standing its number, so far from contributing in 
any degree to the defence of the country, is ra- 
ther a cause of weakness and alarm, than of 
strength, security, and tranquillity. (See app. 
note C) 



36 



CHAP. III. 

THE AMERICA J^ C0J^FEDEIU1TI0:N'. 

The American confederation consists of twen- 
ty-four states; which are, 

1 New-Hampshire, 

2 Maine, 

3 Massachusetts, 

4 Rhode Island, 

5 Connecticut, 

6 Vermont, 

7 New- York, 

8 Pennsylvania, 

9 New-Jersey, 

10 Delaware, 

11 Maryland, 

12 Virginia, 

13 North Carolina, 

14 South Carolina, 

15 Georgia, 

16 Kentucky, 

17 Tennessee, 

18 Ohio5 



37 

19 Louisiana^ 
^ £0 Indiana, 

21 Mississippi, 
25 Illinois, 

23 Alabama, 

24 Missouri. 

The states of Maine and Missouri were not 
admitted into the Union, until the session of 
Congress of 1821. 

The following territories destined on a future 
day, to enlarge the Union; when their popula- 
tion shall have attained the requisite number 
fixed by the constitution of the United States* 
and shall be capable of supporting a local govern- 
ment, like the rest of the States, are to be con- 
sidered as dependencies of the American con- 
federation. 

1st. The Arkansaw Territory. 

2d. North Western Territory. 



*It is established by the Federal Constitution as a general 
rule, that every territory belonging to the United States, shall 
have the right of admission into the Union as a state, when 
its population shall amount to sixty thousand persons. But 
this admission into the Union, may be granted by Congress 
l)y special favour, when the population of a territory has attain^ 
6d but half the number required by the law. {App. JSiote C.) 



38 

3d. Michigan Territory* 

4th. District of Columbia. g| 

The last enumerated, the District of Colum- 
bia, subjected to the exclusive jurisdiction of 
Congress, contains the City of Washington, the 
metropolis of the Union, and the seat of the 
Federal Government. 

In all probability the number of the states 
forming the Union, will ere long, be augmented 
by the incorporation of East Florida, which will 
complete the southern frontier of the United 
States. 

We should exceed the limits of this sketch, 
by giving a succinct description of the different 
states composing the American confederation. 
Independent sovereignties, so far as concerns 
their local interests, they are scarcely distinguish- 
able from each other in the body politic which 
they united constitute. 

To convey a general but an accurate idea of 
them, it is only necessary to state, that they are 
so many republics erected on the principles of a 
pure democracy. The differences observable in 
their respective forms of government exists only 
externally. They rest on a common foundation; 



39 

every where the numerical majority influences 
directly the choice of men and measures: every 
where the executive power, very limited in its 
attributes, is frequently renewed; every where 
in fine, the people possess rights reserved to them- 
selves which their legislators dare not touch. 
These rights, having for their object individual 
liberty and security, are like the laws of Moses, 
placed on a tabernacle, which no profane hand 
dares assail. Viewed at a distance, this constel- 
lation of republics pleases the eye and satisfies 
the mind; the principles on which they are bas- 
ed, reflect honor upon humanity; the apparent 
effects of these popular forms of government, 
present the image of happiness and contentment; 
but as soon as you examine them more closely, 
you discover serious imperfections, and even ano- 
malies. In watching over individual rights thus 
tenderly, justice is rendered incompetent to the 
suppression of many offences committed in the 
daily transactions of life. Without being very 
important in themselves, they nevertheless af- 
fect public order and tranquillity; a well organ- 
ized police, a thing incompatible with American 
institutions, could easily, at least in a considera- 



40 

ble degitie, have prevented their occurrence. In 
guarding against the abuse of executive power, 
they have made it incapable of fulfilling the ob- 
ligations they have imposed upon it, whether it 
concerns the conduct of the foreign relations of 
the country, or those of the confederated states 
^among themselves. In their anxiety to restrict 
the expenses of government, they have exclud- 
ed from public employment men of education 
and talents; for it is certain, and all those who 
have sojourned any time in the United States 
will concur in the opinion, that a seat in Con- 
gress is little sought after by lawyers and phy- 
sicians in possession of an extensive practice.* 

This is not however the place to enter into a 
critical examination of popular governments. 
Like every other work of man, it bears the 
stamp of imperfection. But if, as the author 
believes, limited and constitutional monarchies 
better guarantee individual safety and public 

* These observations should be taken in a limited sense, that 
is to say, as applicable to all democratical governments. To 
prevent any misunderstanding on this point, the author does 
not hesitate to declare it as his conviction, that a republican 
government alone suits the United States in their present situ- 
ation, and is the only one which could subsist in that country. 



41 

tranquillity than democratical states; yet it is 
certain, at least, that the latter are the most eco- 
nomical form of government that can be adopt- 
ed: and, whatever we may think of it in other 
respects, this must be admitted to be% very im- 
portant advantage in a country which meteor 
like is just bursting from obscurity. 

There prevails among the American people 
an almost universal opinion, and which will not 
be easily eradicated, that under the peculiar cir- 
cumstances in which their country is placed, a 
popular government is the best adapted to them. 
They have known no other since its first co- 
lonization, and the history of the United States 
furnishes no single incident exhibiting the slight- 
est tendency in the nation towards a change in 
the existing form of government — a form which 
recommends itself so powerfully to their fa- 
vour by the smallness of the expenditure ne- 
cessary for its maintenance. It is only when 
the Americans represent their institutions as a 
perfect creation of human wisdom, suscepti- 
ble of application at all times and to all coun- 
tries, that the extravagance of their republican 
notions becomes manifest. For after all, the in- 
6 



[2 



stitutions of which they seem so proud, having 
as yet stood the test of but forty years experi- 
ence, cannot be regarded as having been submit- 
ted to a conclusive experiment. They have yet 
to pass thiDugh the ordeal of the immediate vi- 
cinity of a great powder like that of Mexico^ 
when this kingdom, after having entirely severed 
its political ties with Spain shall be permanently 
erected into an independent state, either in the 
form of a constitutional monarchy, or an indivi- 
sible republic. The first effect of this change 
of character on the United States, would be to 
create an absolute necessity for a considerable 
increase of their regular army, and thereby of 
the influence of the federal government. 

Meanwhile we have already witnessed the 
experiments of federated republics, constructed 
on the model of the United States, among South 
American colonies of Spain. As yet, these ex- 
periments have produced but bitter fruits; and 
it is still very doubtful whether they will ever 
be productive of a better harvest, because the 
elements of a democratical government do not 
exist in those provinces, and are never created 
by constitutions framed under the pressure of 
sudden emergencies. 



43 



CHAP. IV. 

THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. 

The general interests of the American Unionj 
are entrusted to a central government establish- 
ed in the city of Washington. It is proper to 
have an idea of its structure, because all the re- 
lations of the country v^ith foreign nations, fall 
within the scope of its povrers. 

The federal government, as vrell as the par- 
ticular state governments, is composed of three 
elementary parts, or, in other words, of three 
distinct powers: that is to say, the executive, le- 
gislative and judicial. 

The executive power is confided to a Presi- 
dent for the term of four years: although, ac- 
cording to the constitution, he may be indefi- 
nitely re-elected. Custom, which in free coun- 
tries is frequently stronger than law, has deter- 
mined that the President is re-eligible but once. 
On the other hand, if it should happen that he 
is not re-elected at the expiration of the first 



44 

term, it is considered as a political dishonour. 
This is the reason why the jftrst term of each 
President is employed in securing re-election 
through the agency of the friends he makes, by 
flattering every popular sentiment which seems 
to have any consistency. 

Such liability to change in the executive 
branch, does not allow the American govern- 
ment to follow any fixed policy, and even com- 
pels it to pursue courses dictated by dominant 
opinions, often contrariant to each other. This 
defect in the federal constitution is acknowledg- 
ed by all enlightened Americans. They all 
agree that it would be better to prolong the 
term of service of the President, by abolishing 
re-election,* 

The President is assisted in the administration 
of the affairs of the government by four Minis- 
ters or Secretaries of State. 

The Secretary of State^ properly speaking, 
who unites in this office the two departments of 
internal and foreign affairs. 

The Secretary of the Treasury^ or of finances. 
The customs, public lands, the post office, and 

* Quere de hoc. — Translator^ 



45 

all other sources of revenue fall within the pro- 
vince of this officer of the government. 

The Secretary at War. To his department 
belong the army and all the military establish- 
ments of the Union; such as fortifications, arse- 
nals, ammunition, &c. He likewise superin- 
tends the relations of the United States with the 
different tribes of Indians residing within their 
territory or in its neighbourhood. 

The Secretary of the Navy is entrusted with 
all the details of the administration of the naval 
department, save those relating to the construc- 
tion of vessels, which are confided to a distinct 
body, called the Navy Boards consisting of three 
naval officers, of acknowledged experience and 
ability in their profession. 

These assistants of the President with the 
Attorney General, form the President's council. 
The Attorney General conducts all the litiga- 
tions of the government 

The authority of the First Magistrate is very 
limited, and indeed it can scarcely be other- 
wise, in a pure Democracy. He cannot origi- 
nate a law; his veto or right of rejection is res- 
trained; that is to say, he is forced to assent to 



46 

a law which he may have rejected, after the le- 
gislature shall have re-considered it and passed 
it by a majority of two-thirds. He can even be 
tried for malversation, treason, or any capital of- 
fence. Notwithstanding the restrictions which 
a protecting spirit of liberty has thought proper 
to impose on the authority of the President, it is 
not possible to strip him of certain prerogatives 
which, in every age and in all countries, have 
been objects of competition for men ambitious 
of power and wealth. 

The President, in conjunction with the Se- 
nate, is commander in chief of the army and 
navy of the United States. He nominates to all 
offices under the general government; but as the 
right of nomination belongs to him exclusively, 
he can dispense many favours, and take all the 
credit to himself, since with a little address, he 
can always secure a majority in the Senate. 
The President has the right of pardon, except 
in cases of treason. 

His salary is twenty-tive thousand dollars, be- 
sides a furnished house belonging to the general 
scovernment. 



47 

The salary of the Secretaries is six thousand 
dollars each. 

The first public officer, after the President, is 
the Vice President of the United States. His 
whole duty is confined to presiding over the Se- 
nate. He has no political importance whatsoever; 
it might even be said, that this office scarcely 
belongs to the system or organization of the fe- 
deral government. The salary of the Vice Pre- 
sident is five thousand dollars. 

After having thus reviewed the executive 
branch of the government, we will merely take 
a rapid glance at the two houses of Congress, 
which are the source of all legislation in res- 
pect to the general interests of the American 
confederation. 

The Senate, 

The first house of Con2:ress is the Senate, 
which represents, or at least is reputed to repre- 
sent, the aristocratical interests of the country, 
they being nothing more than the sovereignty 
of the different states of the Union, from which 
the members of the Senate are delegated. This 



48 

body participates at once in both the legislative 
and executive powder; for the consent of the Se- 
nate is indispensible to all nominations made by 
the President, as w^ell as to the ratification of 
all treaties concluded with foreign nations. The 
concurrence of the Senate is equally necessary 
to give the laws a character of authenticity 
without which they would not be valid. 

Every state of the Union, without regard to 
its territorial dimensions or population, is re- 
presented in the Senate by two members elect- 
ed for the term of six years. Their number 
amounted to forty-four, but it has since been ex- 
tended to forty-eight by the admission into the 
Union of two new states, Maine and Missouri. 

Senators as well as members of the House of 
Representatives, receive a per diem of eight dol- 
lars for the time during which the session of 
Congress lasts. They are allowed besides an in- 
demnity for their travelling expenses at the rate 
of eight dollars for every twenty or English 
thirty miles, which they have to travel in repair- 
ing to, or returning from Congress. 

Seats in the Senate of the United States are 
much sought after, because they are retained 



49 

longer than any other official station, and the in- 
cumbent is therefore less dependant on popular 
favour than in any other public employment. 

One of the qualifications required by the con- 
stitution to be eligible as Senator, is, that he 
should be thirty years of age*. 

The House of Representatives. 

The democratical or popular branch of the 
federal government, consists of the House of 
Representatives, the members of which are cho- 
sen for the term of two years, at the ratio of one 
member for thirty-five thousand free inhabitants. 
Their number is now one hundred and eighty. 
The qualifications of an elector, vary in the dif- 
ferent states of the Union. In some it is suffi- 
cient to prove one year's residence, and the pay- 
ment of municipal taxes; whilst in other states, 
as in Virginia, it is absolutely necessary that the 
voter should be a bona fide proprietor of a free* 
hold. 

In all the states, minority ceases at twenty- 
one years of age. 

The number of Representatives would not be 
7 



50 

so considerable, if at the time of the formation 
of the Federal Constitution, they had not been 
obliged, by way of a compromise, to grant to the 
slave holding states the right of counting three- 
fifths of their slaves as so many free citizens. Of 
this we have already spoken. 

The actual representation is calculated accord- 
ing to the census of 1810. As the population 
has considerably increased since that period, it is^ 
probable, that, with a view of preventing too 
great an augmentation of the members of the 
House of Representatives, the proportion of in- 
dividuals represented by a single delegate, will 
be raised from thirty-five to forty thousand per- 
sons. 

The House of Representatives, holding the 

strings of the national purse, exerts a preponde- 
rating influence over the general affairs of the 
nation. Nevertheless it does not enjoy equal 
consideration with the Senate, the former being 
re-elected three times during the term fixed by 
the constitution for the renewal of the Senate* 



51 



The Judiciary, 

The Judicial power of the federal government, 
is vested in a tribunal composed of seven judges, 
the eldest of w^hom fills the place of President, 
w^ith the title of Chief Justice. This tribunal 
ultimately decides the litigations which arise 
between citizens of different states, between fo- 
reigners and American citizens, and finally be- 
tween the general government of the United 
States and the particular state governments of 
the Union. But of all the duties of the Su- 
preme Court, (for it is thus this court is deno- 
minated), the most important is to expound the 
constitution in all doubtful cases. This duty 
has devolved on the Supreme Court rather by 
usage than by any positive law. 

It holds its sessions in the city of Washington 
at fixed periods. Besides, all the Judges of the 
Supreme Court, wdthout exception, are bound 
to make circuits semi-annually through the dis- 
tricts respectively assigned to them, and to sit, 
in conjunction with local Judges on all cases, 



52' 

which hy their nature, belong to their jurisdic- 
tion. 

The Judges of the Supreme Court cannot be 
removed; they have an annual salary allowed 
them of from four thousand five hundred to five 
thousand dollars. 

A seat on the bench of this court is very much 
aspired to, because it is bestowed only on men of 
acknowledged merit, and because the court it- 
self is held in high repute throughout the coun» 
try. 

The nirmy. 

Among the general observations made in tile 
commencement of this work, we remarked, that 
the nature and genius of this government was 
incompatible with the existence of a standing 
army; and indeed, that of the United States is 
scarcely sufficient for the occupation of the most 
important points in the defensive system of the 
country. It does not exceed at most ten thous- 
and men of the various military corps. How- 
ever disproportioned this army may be to the 
extent of country it is intended to protect, ef- 
forts have been made in Congress to reduce its 



5'3 

numbers. These have at length succeeded, and 
the American Army is now diminished to six 
thousand men of the several military depart- 
ments. According to an opinion pretty gene- 
rally entertained in the United States^^and which 
certainly is not without foundation, the national 
militia, the numerical force of which is eight 
hundred thousand men, is more than adequate 
to the protection of the country from foreign in- 
vasion. This will be true, as long as local dif- 
ficulties inherent in a territory so extensive and 
so thinly populated, oppose almost insurmounta- 
ble impediments to the march of an hostile army. 
There is much wanting to render this nume- 
rous militia, a well organized and disciplined 
force. Such a military result can scarcely be 
expected under a government democratically 
constituted. The organization of this truly na- 
tional defence, is in its infancy. Yet, on the 
other hand, the deficiency is counterbalanced 
by the general topography of the country, as 
well as by the natural qualities of the North 
Americans, who, although bad soldiers in mat- 
ters of discipline, are nevertheless very brave 
and inured to fatigues and privations. 



54 

The Army of the United States is well cloth- 
ed and paid. It is however almost entirely des- 
titute of skilful officers, especially in the artille- 
ry and engineer departments. There is but a 
single nursery of officers; that is, the Military 
Academy at West Point on the North river, in 
the state of New York, supported at the expense 
of the General Government. That institution 
has illy realized the hopes which were formed 
of its usefulness. Licentiousness and neglect 
of discipline among the Cadets, favoured, as it 
were, by the political atmosphere of this vast 
republic, have given rise to serious complaints. 
A motion was even made in Congress to sup- 
press the establishment altogether; and it is in- 
debted for its present existence solely to the 
patriotic efforts of some members of Congress, 
who were convinced that the preservation of 
this military school, notwithstanding its defects, 
was required by national honour and public 
utility. The expense of the War Department 
in all its branches (including arrearages) was in 
the year 1819, nine millions one hundred and 
ninety-five thousand nine hundred and sixty-one 
dollars aud seventy-two cents. 



56 



CHAP. VI. 

THE NAVY 

Until, the last war of the United States with 
England, in 1815, this so efficient a branch of 
national defence, was altogether neglected. Ex- 
traordinary circumstances and painful experi- 
ence were required to correct on this subject, 
the opinions of those who undertook to direct 
national affairs in 1800; the enlightened part of 
the nation always considered the navy as the 
true bulwark of the country. 

It was only since this war, that the American 
government, awakened from the error into which 
it had fallen, took pains to repair it, by plac- 
ing the navy of the United States on a respectable 
footing; one, corresponding to the services it had 
already rendered, as well as the lofty anticipa- 
tion it had given rise to throughout the nation. 

The naval forces of the United States, accord- 
ing to an official statement, (published in 1822,) 
is comprised in the following table. 



56 

Ships of the Line carrying 74 guns. 

The Independence, 
Washington, 
Franklin, 
Columbus, 
Ohio, 

North Carolina, 
Delaware. 

Frigates of the first class. 

The Constitution, 

United States, 

. > each carrying 44 guns. 

jLia vruemere, ^ 

Java, 



Frigates of second class. 

Congress, 

Constellation, 

Macedonian, 

Fxilton^ steam frigate carrying 30 guns. 

Corvettes carrying ^4 guns. 

Hornet, 
Ontarioj 
Erie, 
Peacock, 
Alert, store shijp. 



57 



Brigs carrying 12 guns. 


Enterprize, 






Spark. 






Schooners, 






Nonsuch, 


6 


guns, 


Alligator, 


12 


do. 


Porpoise, 


12 


do. 


Dolphin, 


12 


do. 


Shark, 

• 


12 


do. 


Grampus, 


12 


do. 


Asp, receiving vessel. 




Lady of the Lake, 


, 1 


do. 



Armed Sloops. 

Nos. 95, 8, 76, 158, 168,— each carrying 
from 1 to 6 guns. 

Naval architecture is carried in the United 
States to a high degree of perfection, although 
it is executed merely from practical knowledge. 
8 



58 

The American sailor is not surpassed, in dexter- 
ity and courage, by any other in the world. We 
might say the same of the officers, but it cannot 
be disguised that the greater part of them are still 
ignorant of that theoretical science indispen- 
sible to their profession. 

The partial successes of the American Navy, 
during the last war against Great Britain, seems 
to have intoxicated the whole nation. The 
English, not long since so formidable, are at this 
day frequently an object of derision, and even 
of contempt in the eyes of Americans, who have 
never travelled beyond the boundaries of their 
own country. 

Of all the branches of public service, the navy 
being the most popular, meets with least oppo- 
sition in Congress, when the annual budget is 
regulated. 

The expenses of the naval department, dur- 
ing the year 1 8 1 9, amounted to 3,827,6407Vo 
dollars, comprising the appropriation of a million 
of dollars annually for four years, for the grad- 
ual increase of the navy. Congress having made 
no retrenchments in the sums demanded by the 



59 

government for this department, the expenses 
for the present year are about the same. 

Should not unforeseen events derange the or- 
dinary course of things, in a few years hence, 
the navy of the United States will amount to 
eleven ships of the line and thirty frigates, with 
a proportionate number of small vessels of war. 



60 



CHAP. VII. 



FIJVAJVCES. 



We have before obseiTed that the finances of 
the United States consist almost entirely of two 
items : 

1st. The product of the Customs. 

2d. The product of the sale of Public Lands, 
situated in the States of Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, 
&c. 

We have already remarked that from the year 
1815 to 1821, the revenue from the Customs, 
diminished by nearly tvrenty millions of dollars. 
It amounted in 

1815, to - - - - iS36,306,022 57 

1819, to - - - - g^l 7,1 16,702 00 

Deficit, 819,189,320 57 

The revenue from the sale of Public Lands 
has alvrays been increasing since the same pe- 
riods. Nevertheless, the difficulties vv^hich the 
treasury encountered in the recovery of money 
due from purchasers of public lands, notwith- 



61 

standing the long credits usually given them, 
caused great arrearages to exist in this branch of 
the finances of the State. Two dollars per acre 
was the fixed price of public lands; one fourth 
payable immediately on delivery, and the resi- 
due in equal instalments, in the course of three 
years. If, at the expiration of that period, the 
whole purchase money had not been paid, the 
land reverted to the treasury without the reim- 
bursement of the first payment. No one was 
allowed to purchase more than a certain quanti- 
ty of these lands; the minimum was one hund- 
red and sixty acres. 

An act was recently passed by the two houses, 
by which the price of public lands was reduced 
from two dollars to one dollar and twenty-five 
cents per acre, but payable in cash, immediate- 
ly on the completion of the sale. 

In the report of the Secretary of the Treas- 
ury, for the year 1819, the sale of public lands 
amounted to 82,858,556^^^, but in the estimate 
of the revenue of the year 1821, the same item 
did not exceed two millions of dollars. 



6£ 



Public Debt, 

It has beeu computed that up to the 1st of 
January, 18^0, the public unredeemed debt 
amounted to !S88,885,203,7Vo- 

(Treasury Annual Report, December 13. 1814.) 

According to the same official document, the 
comparative receipts and expenditures of the 
present year, showed a deficit of 85,000,000. 

After having passed in review^, the different 
constituent parts of the Federal Government, it 
will not be superfluous to terminate this sketch 
by some general reflections. 

The government of the United States, so ap- 
parently simple, being unincumbered by the ad- 
ministration of municipal concerns, is neverthe- 
less very complicated in its movements and op- 
erations. 

We have already seen that this Gove^ment, 
incapable of exerting any powers other than 
those specially delegated by the Federal Consti- 
tution, enjoys but a limited sovereignty. Where- 
ever a measure, either of general or particular 
interest, such as the nomination to office^ is in 



63 

agitation, the executive is always placed in the 
embarrassing predicament of being obliged to 
harmonize a multitude of contrariant interests 
and conciliate many opposing pretensions. In a 
word, it is called upon to satisfy as many local 
sovereignties as possible, or perhaps the whole 
United States, each one of which, in urging its 
right of participation in the conduct of general 
affairs, wishes to maintain the exclusive direc- 
tion of its domestic concerns. This is what is 
meant in that country, by geographical and sec- 
tional nominations; that is to say, the distribu- 
tion of offices at the disposition of the Govern- 
ment, among the candidates from the different 
states of the Union according to the relative po- 
litical importance of the several states of the 
confederation. This difficulty seems inherent 
in a government at the same time democratical 
and federal. As long as the country preserves 
its internal tranquillity, the executive power of 
the central government, always placing itself at 
the head of the stronger party of each state, and 
using some little address, will, to a certain de- 
gree, succeed in satisfying all parties, and retain 
its preponderating influence. 



64 

Yet these embarrassing circumstances will be 
sooner or later felt, either in some great exter- 
nal exigency, or when the Union shall be ex- 
posed to those domestic commotions, from which 
no political society is long exempt; and to which 
federative republics are peculiarly liable. 

The late war with England disclosed the 
weakness of the ties by which the different 
parts of the American confederation are united. 
Without the unexpected conclusion of an hon- 
ourable peace, the Hartford Convention, com- 
posed of delegates from all the Eastern States, 
would in all likelihood, have ended in effecting 
their separation from the rest of the Union. 
The greater portion of the Americans, repel 
this idea indignantly: but since it was founded 
on a hypothesis which the events of the war did 
not realize, although very possible and even 
probable, it is useless to discuss so idle a ques- 
tion. 

Notwithstanding the pains taken by the 
framers of the American constitution to define 
clearly the powers delegated to the General 
Government, and that which the states have 
respectively reserved, the line of demarcation 



65 

between them has always been a theme of long 
and violent controversy whenever a question 
of general interest is agitated. Thus during the 
last war, the government or the first magistrate 
of Massachusetts, refused to execute the order 
of the general government, to march the militia 
of that state into Canada. 

The right assumed and carried into execution 
at different times by the federal government 
of establishing a national bank, was also the sub- 
ject of long discussions in congress, and was con- 
tested by many states of the union.* 

As a third and last example of the vagueness 
of the Federal Constitution, we would cite the 
virulent debates which occupied more than half 
the present session of congress, to determine 
whether or not that body had a right, under the 
constitution, to interdict slavery in the new 
state oi^issouri. 

To tMt uncertainty we must look for the fee- 
bleness manifested by the general government 
in the suppression of piratical armaments, pub- 
licly prepared in some of the maritime cities of 



*This question has been finally decided by the supreme 
court in favour of the general government. 
9 



66 

the union, but principally in Baltimore; and iu 
arresting, in its commencement, the audacious 
and criminal expedition of some American ad- 
venturers against the province of Texas. 

The federal government is too clearsighted 
not to foresee tlie grievous consequences vsrhich 
such violations of the law^s of nations may some 
day bring upon the country. And, the govern- 
ment is equally aware, that all its efforts to res- 
train these irregularities will be ineffectual, be- 
cause its orders, if indeed it have the right of 
giving any orders on this subject, would be elud- 
ed, perhaps badly executed or entirely disre- 
garded. 

A foreigner, known generally in Europe by the 
extent and variety of his acquirements, as well as 
by the sprightliness of his mind, Mr. Correa de 
Serra, Minister Plenipotentiary of Portugal near 
the United States, who resided a lon|L time in 
that country, and who traversed it in every di- 
rection, maintains that the American govern- 
ment, to the prejudice of the individual state 
governments, tends strongly to consolidation. 

He even goes so far as to say, that it contains 
already all the elements of a monarchy, and 



67 

only wants a head: he therefore called it the 
headless monarchy. Notwithstanding my res- 
pect for the intelligence of this savant, I am 
bold enough to entertain a contrary opinion. It 
appears to me, that in proportion as the territo- 
ry of the United States is enlarged, and as the 
population, as well as the number of the confe- 
derated states, encreases, the general government 
will gradually lose its strength. 

However this may be, there is one truth well 
established, and important to be kept in view, 
when political relations are held with the Unit- 
ed States, that is, that its sovereignty is incom- 
plete. It therefore happens in many cases, in 
which the laws of nations are interested, that 
the American government finds it impossible to 
act on terms of perfect reciprocity without trans- 
cending its powers. 

This government has hitherto been unable to 
put an end to the illegal armaments which have 
been equipped, and are even now fitting out at 
Baltimore and other ports of the union, against 
the commerce and navigation of nations at peace 
with the United States. Yet it is true, that the 



6S 

disposition of the president and the rest of his 
cabinet, is decidedly opposed to these shameful 
infractions of neutral rights. 

Whilst condemning such voluntary aggres- 
sions, the American government is incompetent 
to prevent them and especially to punish the 
guilty. 



69 



CHAP. VIII. 

The political relations of the United States with 

Europe. 

Hitherto the United States have had little 
concern v/ith European politics, except so far 
as their commerce and navigation were interest- 
ed. In every other respect, this great federate 
republic is absolutely a stranger to the political 
combinations of Europe. 

This state of things will last as long as the re- 
lative thinness of the population and the nature 
of their government prohibit every energetic ef- 
fort beyond the limits of their country. 

It is in the essence of popular governments, 
constituted as they are in our time, to be oppos- 
ed to every expensive enterprise; for the great- 
est merit they possess in the eyes of the multi- 
tude, is the cheapness of the materials, if such 
an expression may be used, of which they are 
composed. 



10 

Considered as a political power, the United 
States must necessarily be classed among the 
maritime powers. 

Their political sympathies and antipathies in 
regard to European nations, should be measured 
by the capableness of the latter to injure their 
commerce and navigation. 

England enjoying an incontestible superiority 
at sea, is for that very reason the power which 
the United States love least and fear most. 

Notwithstanding however, this species of po- 
litical antipathy, it is certain, that the two coun- 
tries are bound together by moral ties which no 
political jealousy can sever. 

These moral ties derive their strength from the 
identity of origin, language, cu^oms* and laws: 
in a word, from all circumstances on which are 
founded the moral and social existence of man. 



^Shortly after the war of Independence a member of con- 
gress, whose name escapes me at this moment, proposed to abol- 
ish the use of the EngUsh language; declaring, that without 
this change, the emancipation of the United States, would never 
be complete. The project was undoubtedly absurd, since it was 
impracticable. But it is not the less true, (to employ a vulgar 
phrase) that the zealous republican laid his finger on the cause 
which will continue for a long time to give England a greaif^^ 
moral influence over this country. 



71 

This truth is admirably illustrated in the me- 
moirs of Talleyrand, on the commercial relations 
of the United States with England and France, 
read to the National Institute in the year 1803. 

Hence it follows that the English, although 
they may find there a violent opposition to their 
politics, nevertheless have the satisfaction of see- 
ing their manufactures preferred to those of othei' 
nations. 

Of all the European powers, France can best 
calculate on a decided predilection on the part 
of the United States. It can scarcely be other- 
wise. Without taking into consideration the 
important services rendered by France to them 
in their war of independence, she has it in her 
power to aid them in their quarrels with Eng- 
land without being able, under any circumstan- 
ces, to inflict the slightest real injury. 

It was probably from this consideration, that 
the American government manifested so clearly 
a partiality for the French government, at the 
time the Berlin and Milan decrees occasioned so 
great losses to the American commerce; while 
the British orders in council were incessantly 



72 

the subject of the most vehement invectives 
and complaints, and terminated in bringing on 
the war of 1812. 

The same reasons, although much less co- 
gent, apply to the relations between Russia and 
the United States of America. It may be said, 
that the disposition of the government and the 
American nation in regard to Russia, is generally 
amicable. The name of the Emperor Alexan- 
der is revered in the United States. This is ow- 
ing to the moderation with which the imperial 
government always treated the interests of Amer- 
ica, at a time when they came into collision 
with those of all the other maritime powers of 
Europe. Russia, formidable as she is, inspires no 
fear in that country. They even reckon on her 
support in any difficulty in which they may be 
hereafter involved with any European powers, 
whose dispositions are less favourable to thena. 



73 



SEC7ZON TUtKD. 

CHAP. I. 

THE ADMLYISTRATIOJV OF JUSTICE. 

Some general reflections on the administra- 
tion of justice in the United States, or rather on 
the spirit of their jurisprudence, may perhaps 
prove interesting to Russian readers, they are 
addressed chiefly to these, for it would certainly 
be almost inexcusable presumption in the au- 
thor, to attempt to instruct Americans on such a 
subject, among whom it is difficult to find a sin- 
gle individual who is not tolerably familiar, if 
not with the theory, at least with the course of 
justice in his country. 

It is generally agreed, that an impartial ad- 
ministration of civil and criminal justice, is one 
of the principal foundations of all political socie- 
ties of a permanent character. For the para- 
mount, and it may be said, the only object of all 
political associations, is the security of person and 
property. 
10 



74 

But if in strongly constituted, or to speak 
more clearly, in absolute monarchies, an im- 
partial administration of justice, be one of the 
most powerful means of prosperity, in a repre- 
sentative government it is an indispensible con- 
dition; the very corner stone of the edifice. In 
absolute monarchies it efficiently corrects the de- 
fects of political laws, and in limited monarch- 
ies or republics, the equitable administration of 
the laws, as it were, takes precedence of politi- 
cal justice.* 



* We are in fact, i*ar from asserting that justice is best ad- 
ministered in republics. Such an opinion would be contradict- 
ed by facts; a badly rej^ulated spirit of liberty, may frequently 
incline the balance of distributive justice, with as strong partial- 
ity as the hand of arbitrary power. This sometimes occurs 
even in the United States, where opulent persons have lost their 
cases because juries favoured the poorer class in preference to 
the rich. Such instances are undoubtedly very rare, but it is in- 
disputable that a sentiment of inveterate jealousy of the rich, 
among the poorer class, has powerfully influenced in many 
states of the union, the municipal laws which regulate the re- 
lation of debtor and creditor. For some years past, th* laws have 
always been favourable to the former, even when right appeared 
on the side of the latter. This is not the place to examine the 
effect of these laws on the welfare of the country. It will be 
sufficient to say, that they have sensibly affected its credit. 
The idea we would convey is intended to bear on the position, 
that in monarchies, principles of distributive justice have not the 
^Damc influence on their political institutions, as in representor 



75 

The Americans emphatically style their couii 
try, "7%c land of the lata/' for among them the 
law, like a superior power, covers the whole 
country, protecting with its shield, or threaten- 
ing with its sword, all indiscriminately, without 
recognizing any distinction between the Su- 
preme Magistrate of the republic and the hum- 
blest citizen. Slaves are the only persons to 
whom its protection is denied. Yet important 
ameliorations of their condition are daily taking 
place in all the states where this unfortunate 
class exists. The new state of Missouri may 
boast of being the first to soften the hardship of 
slavery, by solemn legislative enactment. A 
clause of its constitution declares the murder 
of a slave punishable in the same manner, as 
one committed on a free person. This exam- 
ple has been imitated by South Carolina. 

The Americans having inherited their lan- 
guage, their customs, their political opinions and 

live or democratical governments, such as are now established. 
The example of France under the reign of Napoleon, proves 
that a fair administration of justice is not always incompatible 
with unlimited political power. But on the other hand it may 
be remarked, that the preservation of just ideas of rational liber- 
ty since so happily reaUzed under Louis XVIII, is owing to 
the judicial system of France. 



76 

even their primitive institutions from their En- 
glish ancestors, necessarily adopted their sys- 
tem of jurisprudence. In fact, the two modes 
of administering justice are so much alike, that 
one seems to have heen copied from the other. 
However, to develope this affinity, we should be 
obliged to enter into minute details, of which 
persons well versed in the subject alone are com- 
petent to give a satisfactory account, and which 
have no room within the limits of a simple sketch. 

The dominant principles in the English and 
American systems of jurisprudence are: 

1st. That all men are equal in the eye of the 
law; that is to say, that it is the same for all, 
witliout any distinction whatsoever, whether it 
protects or punishes. 

2dly. That no man can be judged but by his 
peers; that is to say, his equals in society. 

Here a sensible difference between the two 
judicial systems arises which it is not useless to 
notice, although it is only apparent, as it has no 
influence on the course of justice. The English 
constitution recognizes political inequalities; 
whilst the American constitutions, taken collec- 
tively, or individually, only recognize the sim- 



77 

pie difference of profession. An English peer 
possesses certain political rights in which other 
citizens do not participate. Yet the law is not 
the less th^Jjame for him, although the forms 
necessary for its application are different, so far 
as regards the composition of the jury. 

In America political inequalities have no ex- 
istence; so that the law and the forms of its 
application are the same for all, in all cases. 

The body of civil and criminal law is com- 
posed of the following elements. 

1st. The common law^ such as it is in Eng- 
land, notwithstanding the modifications flowing 



^Properly speaking, the common law is nothing more than a 
collection of judicial decisions in isolated cases. It is consult- 
ed in all cases, not provided for by the statute or written law. 
This is an abyss of civil legislation, but the evil is in some 
measure remedied by the discretion of the judges. The com- 
mon law is venerated in England because the English believe it 
to be favourable to liberty. In the United States, where lib- 
erty has gained every thing and has nothing to fear, public 
opinions leans toward written civil codes. But they perhaps, 
scarcely dream that the enterprise would be far from easy in so 
extensive and diversified a country. Besides, however great 
might be the wisdom and perspicacity of the compilers of such 
codes, it would be impossible to foresee the cases that might 
arise, and provide for the interpretations which the acuteness of 
lawyers would place on the meaning of the law. In this way, 
commentaries and readings would enlarge the code to such % de- 



78 

from the nature of a government which ad 
mits of no distinction in the orders of society, 
nor of privileged classes vs^hich were always 
as unknown to these colonies as tl^ right of pri- 
mogeniture. This last right, it is true, exist- 
ed in Virginia, Maryland and South Carolina 
previous to their emancipation, but was abolished 
soon after the revolution. 

2d. Acts of the British Parliament antecedent 
to the period of the American Independence. 
The local legislatures of the United States pos- 
sessed, nevertheless, the power of modifying the 
acts or statutes of the British Parliament as well 
as the common law, in every case which did not 
involve internal commerce or the essential attri- 
butes of sovereignty. The infringement of this 

gree, that it would participate in the inconvenience of the com- 
mon law. 

The statute or written law consists of legislative acts. We 
have already seen that in the United States, the statute law is 
composed of acts of the English Parliament, passed antecedent 
to the revolution, of acts of congress, and lastly of legislative 
acts of the different states forming the confederation. Conse- 
quently the statute law of the United States is derived from 
two sources, one the federal legislation, the other the same 
legislative power reserved to themselves respectively by 
the several states of the union. It is important tiot to lose 
sight of these facts. 



79 

right by the British Parliament eontributed ma- 
terially to the separation of the English colo- 
nies from the mother county. 

3d. Acts of the American congress and of the 
individual legislatures of the different states. 
These last mentioned are only obligatory as 
law, within the circle of the respective jurisdic- 
tion of the state legislatures. 

4th. The civil and criminal codes of partic- 
ular states in which they have been compiled. 
In many states of the union there exists crim- 
inal codes made on the spot. But it is only in 
Louisiana, that we find a body of laws embracing 
all the social relations of the citizens among them- 
selves. 

Their code of laws is nothing but the civil 
code of Napoleon adapted to their local circum- 
stances. This work as important as it is useful, 
was executed by two jurisconsults of that coun- 
try; Mr. Moreau Lestel and Mr. James Brown, 
now a senator in the congress of the United 
States, from Louisiana. 

The organization of the judicial tribunals of 
the United States, bears a great affinity to that of 
the courts of England. Yet marked diflferences 



80 

may be seen between them in some of the states 
of the union; and these diflferences without be- 
ing fundamental, modify the cause of justice in 
civil litigations. 

In many states, as in New-York, New-Jersey 
and Virginia, there is a court of chancery invest- 
ed with jurisdiction similar to that of the chan- 
cery court in England. In other states, this 
court assumes another form, or the ordinary 
courts are clothed with a jurisdiction usually be- 
longing to a court of chancery. 

It would be superfluous to enter into a detail- 
ed description of the organization of the various 
courts in the different states of the American 
confederation. The design in which it is con- 
ceived is common to all; which is, to secure to 
every man prompt and impartial justice. The 
latter object is unquestionably accomplished; but 
it would be important to abridge the delays of 
litigation; for, in regard to promptitude, it is very- 
doubtful whether they have been successful in 
the United States. Means to elude the views of 
legislators and protract the pendancy of suits be- 
yond a reasonable term, have always been found 
by the ingenuity of lawyers. This particularly 



81 

happens when the plaintiff in a cause is a for- 
eigner, seeking redress from an Insurance Com- 
pany. 

In every case, either civil or criminal, there 
are but two stages or degrees of judicial en- 
quiry, A courtof original jurisdiction, of which 
there is one at least in each county, decides in the 
first instance. Should there be an appeal, the 
judgment is review^ed by the Supreme Court, of 
which there is one in each state. The jurisdic- 
tion of this tribunal in all its litigations between 
citizens of the same state, corresponds to that of 
the Court of King's Bench in England; and the 
judges, during the recess, also perform a circuit 
in the district assigned to them respectively, with 
this difference, that in America the eldest or 
Chief Judge of the Supreme Court is not ex- 
empted from this duty, as is the case with the 
presiding judge of the King's Bench in England. 

In every suit which, under the provisions of 
the constitution of the Federal Government, is 
definitively adjudicated by the Supreme Court of 
the United States, there are properly three stages 
of judicial investigation, A local court of origin- 
11 



82 

al jurisdiction^ first tries the cause and passes 
judgment. An appeal, if one be taken, is then 
carried before a Circuit Court, \ A further ap- 
peal may be then had to the Supreme Court of 
the United States, which finally adjudges the- 

cause.f 

According to these external forms observed 
in the proceedings of all the tribunals of the 
country, ivith the exception of the Court of 
Chancery or Equity, and the Supreme Courts 
which pass sentence without the intervention 
•of a jury, the dispensation of the law, indepen- 
dently of the necessary formality of opening 
every judicial proceeding, whether civil or crim- 
inal, is performed in the following manner : 



*Over this court, commonly called the Circuit Court of the 
United States, one of the Judges of tlie District Court presides, 
associated with one of the Judges of the Supreme Court of the 
United States. The iflembers of this last tribunal, without even 
the exception of the Chief Justice, have each their district as- 
signed to tliem respectively, which they visit annually at fixed 
periods. 

\ See note in Appendix. 

I This Court likewise takes cognizance of all cases arising 
from the violation of the laws of the United States, strictly speak- 
ing, or Acts of Congress. 



S3 

Lawyers or advocates, on each side, state the 
case, argue upon the law, produce their authori- 
tieSj and examine the witnesses. 

One of the judges then gives the jury a sum- 
mary of the pleadings on both sides. In some 
states they confine themselves to explaining to 
the jury the law that should govern their deci- 
sion. 

The jurors then retire to deliberate among 
themselveson what verdict they shall find, which 
verdict, when once found, is announced to the 
judge by one of their own body, chosen by the 
court for that purpose, as the most distinguish- 
ed of them by his character and intelligence. 

Finally the judge applies the law and the suit 
is determined. 

All these different formalities are performed 
publicly. The court room is open to every one 
without distinction. This publicity in judicial 
proceedings, has perhaps a greater influence up- 
on the impartial distribution of justice, than the 
institution of a jury trial. 

In all civil and criminal cases, the jury decides 
on both the law and the fact. In criminal pros- 
ecutions, the power of the jury has no limits, but 



84 

it is otherwise in civil cases. On a question of 
law, the opinion of the judge has usually great 
weight with the jury; and when their verdict is 
contrary tathe law, such as it has been expound- 
ed byjthe judge, he sets it aside and recommends 
to them to reconsider the case. Should the jury 
prove obstinate in their opposition, the judge can 
order a new trial of the cause. 

It is then evident, that the agency of a jury in 
civil cases is less real than apparent, since in a 
majority of them they are directed by the supe- 
rior knowledge and experience of the j udges. 
In fact, it is scarcely possible that persons, abso- 
lutely strangers to a profound knowledge of the 
civil law, should be competent to administer it 
equitably in all cases, (many of which are com- 
plicated,) arising from disputes betw^een the in- 
habitants of a free and civilized country. 

We should not omit to mention the obliga- 
tion of serving in turn as a juror, from which no 
American citizen is exempt, under the penalty 
of a heavy fine. This often becomes a species of 
burthensome tax on the time of the industrious 
part of the community. 



85 

Criminal legislation having for its object to 
shield, against the assaults of violence and mal- 
ice, all that is most valuable to man, his life and 
reputation, has invested its proceedings with ev- 
ery precaution that human foresight could sug- 
gest, to guard the accused against any precipitan- 
cy in the organs of he law, and to afford him at 
the same time the most unbounded means of 
self-justification. This assuredly is the beautiful 
feature of American jurisprudence, a jurispru- 
dence which in other respects resembles in its de- 
tails the mode of criminal procedure practised in 
England. 

The prevailing principle of the system seems 
to establish above all other considerations, that 
it is better for society that ten criminals should 
escape the rigour of the laws which they may 
have violated, than that one innocent person 
should be condemned to punishment. Perhaps 
some doubts might justly be entertained of this 
maxim, repeated to satiety by modern philan- 
thropy. We might possibly be nearer to the 
truth in maintaining the converse proposition; 
for, the sum of evil resulting to society in the two 
cases is evidently greater in the first than in the 
second. Meanwhile we cannot but applaud a 



86 

system of criminal jurisprudence, which evinces 
so much solicitude to prevent judicial error. 

We should place al the head of the safeguards 
of personal security, the justly celebrated law of 
habeas corpus. This law prevents arbitrary and 
protracted imprisonment, and is exactly the 
same in the United States as in England. 

False accusations and illegal prosecutions are 
obviated by the institution of the Grand Jury^ 
which the Americans regard as the palladium 
of their liberty. The Grand Jury is never com- 
posed of less than thirteen, nor more than twen- 
ty-three individuals, although twenty-four are 
usually summoned. They are chosen by lot, at 
the opening of each session of the criminal court, 
from among active and respectable citizens. The 
Grand Jury examines the witnesses against ac- 
cused persons, and decides, by a majority of 
votes, whether there is a sufficient reason for put- 
ting the accused on trial. This examination is 
made with closed doors, and cannot therefore 
prejudice the accused in the formal trial which 
he is about to undergo. 

An indictment is not found until after the 
Grand Jury has had sufficient proof before them 



87 

against him, and it is then only that he can be 
formally tried. In the contrary case, he is dis- 
missed from all judicial prosecution. 

The Grand Jury can also take cognizance of 
some general matters of a local character, such as 
the state of the prisons, the roads, and of partic- 
ular cases brought before them. The result of 
this enquiry is reported to a competent tribunal^ 
and, in this way, abuses are corrected. 

It appears that the institution of the Grand 
Jury exists in all the United States, and that it 
is every where composed of intelligent and re- 
spectable citizens, who are considered as the most 
efficient guardians of the public safety. 

The Petit Jury, composed of twelve individ- 
uals, chosen on the same principle that governs 
the selection of the Grand Jury, acting more di- 
rectly in the distribution of both civil and crimi- 
nal justice, secures impartiality by a species of 
equality and reciprocal sympathy which this in- 
stitution is thought to establish between the 
judges and the person to be judged. 

We have already seen, that in all civil and 
criminal cases, excepting those which are carried 
before the courts of chancery or the supreme 



88 

courts which ultimately decide, the Petit Jury 
exercises the greatest power. It might be 
said that it contains the very essence of judicial 
power; yet we have likewise observed, that in 
civil suits the course of the jury is greatly influ- 
enced and even controled by the judge. 

Such is not the case in criminal prosecutions. 
The duty of the judge is restricted to making a 
summary statement of the case : the jury, em- 
bracing in their deliberations the law as well 
as the facts, pronounces peremptorily and with- 
out appeal on the part of the judge, on the crimi- 
nality of the accused, guilty or not guilty. In 
the first instance, the prisoner suffers the penalty 
imposed by the law, which is announced to him 
by the judge, provided, before the expiration of 
a certain period of time, the executive power, 
invested with the right of pardoning, does not ex- 
ercise its prerogative in favor of the criminal, 
either to remit or commute the punishment. 

But when, by the verdict of the jury, the ac- 
cused person is declared not guilty, he is imme- 
diately set at liberty, without liability to a re- 
newal of the prosecution; this conforms to one 
of the fundamental principles of English juris- 



89 

prudence, that no man can be twice tried for 
the same offence. In both civil and criminal 
cases, the verdict of the jury to be valid must be 
unanimous. When, in the opinion of the jury, 
the crime, although sufficiently established, is 
accompanied by circumstances of extenuation, 
then still declaring him guilty, they recommend 
him to the mercy of the executive; and such 
recommendation is always taken into conside- 
ration. 

Independently of the publicity of the proceed- 
ings and the intervention of a jury, these two 
powerful safeguards of innocence, the slightest 
errors in the judicial forms, however insignifi- 
cant they may be in themselves, according to 
the spirit of American jurisprudence, operate in 
its favor. Thus a single fault of orthography or 
misnomer in the indictment, is sufficient to arrest 
instantly the trial of a criminal cause. 

In fact, by the criminal laws and forms of 
procedure in use in the United States, an accus- 
ed person is so abundantly fortified with means 
of defence, that he has absolutely nothing to ap- 
prehend from the malice of h^s accusers, nor 
from the precipitancy of his judges. We should 
12 



90 

be even tempted to believe, that in certain eases^ 
the law is too favourable to the accused, w^hen 
we see how diificult it is in the United States 
to bring an individual, charged with the most 
atrocious crimes which have been perfectly 
proven, to merited punishment. This difficulty 
amounts to an actual impossibility, when, by ac- 
cident, as frequently happens in Pennsylvania, 
the jury is composed of quakers. 

We have yet to speak of the independence of 
the judges, which is also considered as one of the 
principal requisites for an impartial administra- 
tion of justice. 

The opinion, that expounders of the law, to 
discharge justly and with dignity their impor- 
tant functions, should be placed in absolute in- 
dependence of all political power, is pretty gene- 
ral and uniform in the United States. 

In all tribunals, emanating from the authority 
of the federal government, the judges are ir- 
removeable, or what amounts to the same thing, 
hold their place during good behaviour. They 
can only be deposed by a formal accusation 
(impeachment) made by the house of repre- 



91 

sentatives before the senate, and sustained by 
two thirds of the members of that body. 

These judges receive a liberal pecuniary com- 
pensation, sufficient to procure an easy and ho- 
nourable livelihood. 

The same advantages are granted to judges 
who preside over tribunals created by the local 
authorities of the United States. Nevertheless 
the jealous spirit of popular liberty of Rhode 
Island and Vermont, refused to invest their judg- 
es w^ith that independence which alone can ren- 
der them, at the same time, impartial and re- 
spectable. They are there badly paid, and hold 
their office but for one year. 

A more striking defect in this respect, exists 
in the judicary system of the state of New York. 
It is declared by the constitution of that state, 
that every judge becomes incapable of fulfilling 
his official functions, after sixty years of age. In 
England as in other countries, the contrary opin- 
ion prevails, that a judge of sixty years of age, 
is in the full vigour of his usefulness. But the 
legislators of the state of New York think dif- 
ferently, without suspecting that they thereby 



92 

calumniate the intellectual faculties of their 
countrymen. 

It may be said in general, that judges are held 
in great and merited consideration in the United 
States. 

We could easily produce a list of judges, as em- 
inent by their virtues as by their talents, taken in- 
differently from all the states of the union. But 
since it is impossible to do justice to each, it is 
better to omit them all. 

The profession of the law, is also held in high 
estimation, and excites a preponderating influ- 
ence in the conduct of public affairs. One sin- 
gle fact will serve to remove all doubt on the 
subject. Of the forty-eight members now com- 
posing the senate of the United States, thirty- 
six are lawyers by profession. 

The same considerations of prudence, which 
did not permit the author to speak of the judges 
individually, prohibit the mention of the most 
distinguished lawyers of the country; and this 
involuntary silence is preserved the more reluc- 
tantly, as he is happy enough to count among them 
some tried friends. 



93 



CHAP. II. 



PENITENTIARIES, 



A SKETCH of this branch of the criminal juris- 
prudence of the United States of America, will 
complete what we proposed to say concerning 
the penal legislation of that country. The great 
popularity of the Penitentiary system among en- 
lightened Americans, and the brilliant results 
anticipated from it in the beginning of the ex- 
periment, but which experience has so badly jus- 
tified, have induced the author to devote a sepa- 
rate article to the subject. 

The philanthropic sentiments prevailing in 
Europe, and of which the writings of Beccaria 
and Howard were but the first expression, found 
public opinion in the United States not only wil- 
ling to receive them, but to make an experiment 
of every suggestion which these celebrated de- 



94 

fenders of suffering humanity had advanced, 
either for the improvement of criminal jurispru- 
dence, or for the reform of prisons. 

This spirit of benevolence soon manifested it- 
self in the United States, by innumerable publi- 
cations, recommending, in pathetic terms, the 
abolition of capital punishment, except in cases 
of extraordinary atrocity. 

In all, it vv^as assumed as an admitted princi- 
ple, and consequently indisputable, that the chief 
tendency of a law ought to be to prevent and 
not to punish crime. To this general proposi- 
tion, the evidence of the correctness of which is 
perhaps not sufficiently demonstrated, the scru- 
ples of conscience of some religious sects, and 
more especially thequakers, soon added another, 
more general and important in its character. It 
aimed at contesting the right of capital punish- 
ment altogether. To the Creator alone, said 
they, does it belong to dispose of the life of man, 
as his proper work. 

Such sentiments meeting with scarcely any 
opposition, the punishment of death, except in 
cases of premeditated murder, was abolished 
successively in all the states of the union. 



95 

It is doutbful, whether this triumph of phil- 
anthropy served to diminish the number of crimes 
superinducing capital punishment. However, 
it is certain that the number of prisoners, with- 
out reference to their particular crimes, always 
increased, notwithstanding the mildness of their 
criminal laws, and the deep sentiment of human- 
ity with which they are administered in the 
American courts of justice. 

Without pausing here to examine the causes 
of this moral phenomenon, causes difficult to de- 
signate with precision, and which it is better to 
leave to the research of American philanthro- 
pists, the author cannot refrain from apprising 
the reader, that nothing is further from his mind 
than the idea of attributing the augmentation of 
crimes in the United States, to the greater leni- 
ency of their criminal jurisprudence. In his 
opinion, this melancholy result is owing, in a 
great measure, to the extreme facility with which 
either pardon or commutation of punishment is 
obtained; a facility which deprives penal laws of 
that salutary terror, without which, they are no 
better than a dead letter. 



96 

The increase of crime, and consequently the 
number of persons confined in the public prisons, 
ultimately attracted attention throughout the 
United States. They imagined they had detect- 
ed the cause in the faulty organization of the in- 
ternal police of their public prisons, and have ever 
since been engaged in endeavouring to remedy 
the defect. 

Such was the origin of Penitentiaries in 
America, in 1790. The state of Pennsylvania 
was the first to introduce them, and the rest of 
the states of the union soon followed her exam- 
ple. The quakers exerted their activity and 
influence with equal zeal and success, to place 
these establishments on their present footing. 
According to this new plan, Penitentiaries were 
to have a double object — to punish crime and 
reform the criminal. On one hand, they sought 
to rid society, without effecting a great diminu- 
tion in the labour required by its wants, of every 
individual who had transgressed the civil or crim- 
inal law. On the other, they wished the crimi- 
nals, condemned to a longer or shorter confine- 
ment in proportion to the degree of their offences, 
in expiating them by the temporary loss of their 



97 

liberty, to contribute, by the product of their 
labour, both to the reimbursement of the expen- 
ses of their imprisonment and the accumulation 
of the means of an honest livelihood, to be given 
them at the expiration of the term of their pun- 
ishment. 

The humanity of these reformers of prisons, 
had scrupulously provided for all the real wants 
of the prisoners with a profusion of charity, 
that has since proved one cause of the ill suc- 
cess of this philanthropic enterprize: for it is no- 
torious, that the daily support of convicts in the 
principal penitentiaries of the United States, al- 
ways was, and is to this moment, superior to that 
which the greater part of the honest mechanics 
of the country can procure by their labour. 

Solitary confinement, as the last degree of se- 
verity, and which, in many cases, was to super- 
sede capital punishment, was at different periods 
inflicted on prisoners whose crimes were not of 
a very heinous description, but whose conduct 
was indocile and turbulent. 

By these united expedients, they flattered 
themselves that the double end of these new 
kind of prisons could be accomplished; that is to 
13 



98 

say — the punishment of crime, and by the re- 
form of the criminal, the prevention of its recur- 
rence. 

A third advantage promised by this system, 
was its economy. In fact, the idea of having 
prisons, the expenses of which would be defray- 
ed by the labour of the prisoners themselves, 
and without cost to the state, was the more se- 
ducing as it was connected with hopes of a high- 
er kind of usefulness, which had public morality 
for its object. The first effects of this system of 
imprisonment appeared to confirm the hypothe- 
ses on which it was founded. Penitentiaries as- 
sumed the appearance of spacious work-shops, 
from which issued every kind of workmanship, 
of the most perfect execution. 

But when, at the end of some years, they be- 
held the number of prisoners augment, and the 
expenses of these establishments more and more 
exceed the receipts — when they discovered 
among the prisoners, persons who had before 
undergone the same punishment, a suspicion 
arose that there was some error in the course 
until then pursued in regard to them* 



99 

Witliout accumulating facts in support of this 
assertion, we will confine ourselves to extracts 
from the official report of the inspectors of the 
penitentiary in Philadelpliia, for the year 1819. 
Towards the end of that year, it contained four 
hundred and sixteen prisoners. Of this number, 
seventy-three had been twice imprisoned in that 
institution; twenty-five three times, seven four 
times, and two five times. The same result oc- 
curred in other States which had adopted the 
penal system of Pennsylvania. 

The insurrection of the prisoners in the differ- 
ent penitentiaries, but more especially the insur- 
rection of 1820 in Pennsylvania, dissipated the 
illusion of the public. It is now agreed in 
the United States, that the experiment has com- 
pletely failed, and that important modifications 
are indispensably necessary in the organization 
of penitentiaries. 

Among the causes which have brought about 
this sad result, the following are generally admit- 
ted. 

1st. The want of a proper classification of 
the prisoners. 



100 

Hundreds of prisoners, shut up in the same 
prison, although for crimes infinitely various in 
their character and enormity, are employed in 
different species of labour, but are crowded pro- 
miscuously in the same place. At night thirty 
or forty sleep in one room. 

In consequence of such an arrangement, the 
discipline of penitentiaries, far from awakening 
in the minds of the convicts a disposition to re- 
pent, on the contrary confirms them in their vi- 
cious habits. Hardened malefactors teach the 
novices crime, and in this way a prison, intended 
to reform its tenants, becomes by their intercourse, 
a Lancastrian school for mutual instructions 
in vice. 

It is however just to remark, that this want of 
classification of the criminals is almost irreme- 
diable, unless you consent to allow a very large 
space for this institution and consequently very 
expensive dimensions to the buildings. 

%dly. The facility with which criminals con- 
demned to a long confinement^ obtain either the 
remission or commutation of their punishment. 

That this cause really prevails, and that it is 
pernicious in its influence on public morals, is so 



101 

notorious and well established a fact, that no en- 
lightened American would surely deny its exist- 
ence. 

Among the political rights reserved by the se- 
veral States of the union to themselves, is that 
of pardoning. This beautiful prerogative of ex- 
ecutive power is exercised, not only by the pres- 
ident of the United States, but also by twenty- 
four governors or chief magistrates, each within 
the limits of the territorry of his own state. And 
it will not appear astonishing that they grant 
it with so much readiness, when it is known, 
that there are some governors, like the governor 
of Ohio, whose whole executive authority is com- 
prised in the power of pardoning. 

3d. The luxury of charity^ if we may be alloiv- 
ed the expression^ with which they usually pro- 
vide for the subsistence of prisoners. 

This fact is likewise beyond all contradiction; 
and the author of this article has had, upon more 
than one occasion, an opportunity of convincing 
himself of it, by the testimony of his own eyes. 
Such mistaken philanthropy essentially contrib- 
utes to divest punishment of its ejBScacious terrors. 



102 

However, they begin to retrench this prodigali- 
ty, and to discover, that a prison ought never to 
be a house of comfort, but of affliction and pen- 
itence, and that, in regard to the prisoner, jus- 
tice should never furnish him with superfluities, 
but be contented with simply sparing him use- 
less privations. 



SECTION rOVRTK. 



STATE OF SOCIETY. 



In order to form an idea of the present state of 
society in the United States, it is necessary to 
premise that it is the result of civilization, as 
ancient as that of England, but appUed to a 
country comparatively very new. The effect 
must consequently be very different from that 
w^hich we behold in the old states of Europe, 
where, to use such a phrase, civilization has fol- 
lowed, and not as in the United States, preceded 
the cultivation of the soil. The history of the first 
colonization of North America is well known. 
We are apprised that the founders of the colo- 
ny at New Plymouth, in Massachusetts, which 
was commenced in the beginning of the seven- 
teenth century, were men who had left their 
own country to evade the religious and political 



104 

persecution to which they were exposed io 
England. These, in point of civilization, were 
on a level with society as it existed at that peri- 
od in Europe. The same may be said of the 
followers of William Penn, who peacefully set- 
tled themselves in Pennsylvania, about the year 
1682. And, although the founders of a colony 
on the shores of Virginia, established a few years 
before those of Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and 
Maryland, were, in their origin, an assemblage 
of adventurers eager to acquire riches, rather 
than an association of peaceful and industrious 
persons, it is not the less true, that they enjoyed 
a degree of civilization proportionate to the re- 
spective trades and professions which they fol- 
lowed in their native land; and in a degree already 
sufficient to render them much superior to the 
aboriginal inhabitants of this vast continent. It 
is assuredly to civilization, that we must attri- 
bute, not only the vigorous resistance which 
they made against the attacks of the natives of 
the soil, who were much more numerous and 
warlike than the colonists themselves; but also 
their rapid and constant progress in the improve- 



105 

ment of their mode of life, the final result of 
which has been the political existence of the 
United States of America. 

''Knowledge^'' says Bacon^ Hs power,'' This 
maxim has never perhaps been better demon- 
strated than by the history of the colonization 
of North America; an enterprise the more re- 
markable, as it is owing to the courage and ef- 
forts of a few individuals, and not, like the con- 
quest of Mexico and Peru, to the immense re- 
sources of the most powerful monarchy of its 
time. 

In proportion as the colonists, opposed in the 
commencement by local difficulties, acquired 
consistency, their relations with England be- 
came more and more important. The identity 
of manners, and above all, of language, enabled 
them to follow, at a certain distance, the mother 
country in her career of civilization. This 
double identity at least prevented them from re- 
lapsing into ignorance. The presses and work- 
shops of England, laboured alike for the colonies 
and the inhabitants of the three kingdoms. The 
fruits of all discoveries in the sciences, arts and 
trades, were immediately transmitted to the eol- 
14 



106 

onistsof North America. It cannot be denied but 
that the intimacy of these relations, had an im- 
portant agency in preventing the formation of a 
national character; but it is nevertheless certain, 
that this very intimacy of relation and interest, 
contributed powerfully to develop the natural 
resources of the countiy, and accelerate the 
epoch of its political emancipation^ 

These reflections appeared necessary to elu- 
cidate the principal fact asserted, that the coun- 
try is new, but Us civilization is old; and as it will 
soon be seen, they were not irrelevant to the 
subject of which we are about to treat. 

By the state of society, is commonly under- 
stood, the state of manners, customs, intelli- 
gence and mode of life of the inhabitants of a 
country; or in other words, the aggregate of 
their physical and moral existence. 

We have already stated, that the first Euro- 
pean colonists, who sought an asylum on the 
shores of North America, belonged to a civilized 
class of men. Their settlements, so feeble in 
their origin, were not slow in improvement. 
After having repelled the attacks of the Indians, 
who, being the primitive possessors of the soil 



107 

€ould not behold without alarm, the appearance 
of a foreign race in their neighbourhood, the 
colonists gradually, extended a domain, which 
they had either wTested from the natives by main 
force, or as in the negotiations between them 
and William Penn, obtained by amicable ar- 
rangement. 

The limits of the colonies advancing further 
and further towards the west, in proportion as 
the Indians retired, at length reached the base 
of the Alleghany mountains. This barrier was 
soon surmounted, and the settlements follow- 
ing closely the foot steps of the retreating In- 
dians, attained the banks of the Mississipi: 
and in these later times, after crossing this great 
river, they have travelled on to the banks 
of the Missotari, and even to the shores of the Pa- 
cific Ocean. 

So rapid an extension of territory over a coun- 
try, until then a stranger to every species of cul- 
ture, necessarily wrought a considerable change 
in the manners of the colonists as well as in their 
mode of life. Those among them who prefer- 
red remaining in maritime cities, which they saw 
flourishing after having witnessed their founda- 



108 

tion, retained the longest their primitive traits 
of character. The reason is simple; they lived 
with persons, the greater part of w^hom, came 
from the same country, and who professed the 
same political and religious opinions. Migra- 
tion alone could operate on their manners but 
a slight change, which for a long time, must ne- 
cessarily have been imperceptible, because it 
could only arise from the natural effects of a 
new climate, and an unlimited democratical go- 
vernment, substituted for the dominion of a con- 
stitutional monarchy. Other colonists, whom 
the spirit of adventure and the love of gain had 
urged into the interior of the country, suddenly 
found themselves exposed to all the inconvenien- 
ces of a solitary life in the midst of a wilderness. 
Deprived of immediate neighbourhood, they 
passed the first years of their removal in painful 
and unwholesome labour, at one time felling 
trees for the construction of dwellings, at another 
breaking the unfurrowed soil, the fertility of 
which was counterbalanced by febrile exhala- 
tions, peculiar to new lands, impregnated with 
decomposed vegetable matter. Whole months 
passed away without these inhabitants of the 



109 

forests seeing other human beings than their fam- 
ilies. Such isolation naturally hardened their 
character, and imparted to their manners some- 
thing of the savage nature by which they were 
surrounded. When at length population, allured 
by the richness of the soil increased around them, 
and gave them neighbours, equally deteriorated 
in regard to civilization; vvhen political and civil 
laws began to operate in the midst of these grow- 
ing societies, great difficulties were encountered 
in their execution, from men accustomed to en- 
joy an unbounded independence, and to give full 
sway to their passions. Roughness of manner 
became the greater among these half civilized 
and half savage men, as the religious sentiments 
they might have carried with them into the for- 
est, gradually, for want of nourishment, lost all 
empire over them; for it is obvious, that a very 
considerable time must have elapsed, before the 
population of these new countries could have ar- 
rived at that degree of denseness in which the 
want of any kind of worship whatsoever is felt. 
This observation is especially applicable to a 
country, the fundamental laws of which do not 



110 

allow auy national religion, and experience has 
proved, that among the states composing the 
American union, it is in those of more recent 
existence, that the elections are most tumultu- 
ous, party spirit most virulent, and individual 
contests most bloody. 

To find the class of men vs^hom w^e have just 
pourtrayed, we must unquestionably traverse the 
United States in its whole breadth from east to 
west, and reach the borders of the Missouri and 
Arkansaw. Every where civilization is seen 
rapidly advancing towards perfection. But it is 
not less true, that to this hour, there are in some 
parts of the country, men who are savage in 
their manners and mode of life, and, at the same 
time, civilized in regard to industry and a know- 
ledge of the mechanic arts. These, who have 
been ingeniously AenoxainBieA pioneers of civili- 
zation^ are the origin of the population of the 
numerous states on the borders of the Ohio, the 
Mississippi, the Indiana and the Illinois rivers. 

To a traveller, however little accustomed to 
observe what is passing around him, the interior 
of the United States offers undeniably a most in- 
teresting spectacle. On leaving the maritime 



Ill 

cities, where all the conveniences of life have been 
carried to a high degree of refinement, he sees them 
insensibly diminish, and civilization grow fainter 
and fainter, in proportion as he advances westward. 

After having left splendid and prosperous 
cities, and travelled for some time, he arrives at 
regions where the footsteps of the first civi- 
lized settlers (if I may he allowed the expres- 
soin) are yet imprinted on the soil. At length 
he finds himself in thedepths of forests, until then 
visited only by Indian hunters, and among whom, 
at long intervals of space, he here and there re- 
cognizes colonists, but lately arrived with their 
families, who have no other dwellings than their 
wagons, and scarcely any other food than the 
salt provisions they brought with them. — 
Thus, in travelling through the interior of the 
United States, in the course of a few weeks, you 
may ascend and descend the scale of civilization. 

The English character may be distinctly seen 
in all the customs of the inhabitants of that coun- 
try. The construction of their houses, their 
dress, food, and even amusements are the same 
as in England, excepting those stronger or weak- 
er shades of difference, which local circumstan- 



1V2 

ces and the nature of a government purely de- 
mocratical, necessarily impress on the character 
and habits of the North Americans. To these 
natural affinities, we may add the identity of 
language, the influence of which is more felt 
than that of any other; and we may then easily 
understand, how the moral sympathies prevail 
over the political antipathies which exist, in a 
signal degree, between England and the United 
States. England is not generally beloved by the 
people of the United States; yet the English are 
better received than any other foreigners, espe- 
cially when they bring with them the air and 
manner which characterize a good education. 
Among the shades of difference between the 
English and American manners, the first which 
strikes the eye is a comparative want of cleanli- 
ness in the latter. This deficiency arises from 
various local causes. 

In the northern, middle and western states, 
where the influence of slavery is but faintly 
visible, the dearness of every species of labour 
affecting all domestic services, renders them 
sometimes insufficient for the maintainance of 
great cleanliness in the interior of the houses- 



113 

Wherever the law sanctions or even tolerates 
slavery, uncleanliness is in some measure incur- 
able, because it is the inevitable result of that so- 
cial disease. What traveller in passing through 
the American colonies, has not felt surprised at 
the difference, in point of cleanliness, between 
those states in which slavery exists, and those in 
which it is abolished. It might be said that in 
the former, the blacks who execute all domes- 
tic services, communicate their colour to every 
thing they touch. 

However, it is proper to observe, that the pre- 
ceding remarks apply particularly to inns, tav- 
erns and other public places which are mo«t apt 
to attract the notice of a traveller. For the nous- 
es of the better classes of society, not only in 
the maritime cities, but also in the interior of the 
country, exhibit a degree of cleanliness which 
scarcely leaves any thing to be desired. 

In the eastern and in some parts of the mid- 
dle states, even the labouring classes are so re- 
markable for their cleanliness, that we should 
seek in vain for the same degree in more than 
one country of Europe, 
15 



114 

The daily dress of the Americans differs alstr 
from that of the English in heing less neat. The 
Americans are too much occupied with their 
business, which, in consequence of the dearness 
of labour and the value of time, would be de- 
ranged by neglect, to permit them to devote the 
same degree of attention to the toilet as is cus- 
tomary in England. 

It is for the same reason that they do every 
thing in a hurry, even to eating their meals, 
which, under different names, they take four 
times a day. When Sunday comes to suspend 
the general bustle, the streets of the large cities 
and public places, are filled with loungers, who 
pass their time in gazing at passengers, to whom 
they invariably communicate the ennui with 
which they themselves are oppressed. 

The rudiments of knowledge being very gen» 
erally diffused throughout the United States, it 
is not usual to meet, even in the labouring class, 
with persons who are ignorant of riding, writ- 
ing and arithmetic. English travellers ac- 
knowledge that their language, as it is spoken by 
the generality of the inhabitants of the United 
States, is purer and more correct than in the 



115 

mother country, where each province, or in oth- 
er words county, differs from the rest by its pe- 
culiar dialect. But if after having made this 
concession, we proceed to the examination of 
the state of the arts and sciences, at the first 
glance we discover, that as regards them, the 
country is still far behind Europe. 

The price of labour and time concur in pro- 
ducing such a result. This assertion requires 
explanation. We know that the population of 
the United States, since the period of their inde- 
pendence, has constantly increased in a propor- 
tion almost unexampled. But the extension of 
their territory has advanced in a still more rapid 
progression; to be convinced of which, it is on- 
ly necessary to consult the map of the United 
States, such as they were in 1783, and after- 
wards that which has just been published for 
the use of schools. The first effect of so vast 
an accession of territory, has been the dispersion 
of a number of men over an immense surface. 

A considerable amount of capital of course took 
the same direction, and its accumulation in the 
great maritime cities was retarded. 



116 

I am far from wishing to deny, that the Em- 
ployment of capital in clearing new lands, might 
be, after all, most favourable to the future pros- 
perity of the country; but on the other hand it 
must be admitted, that such a state of things can 
but little promote the cultivation of letters, the 
fine arts, and all the other branches of learning 
which constitute the intellectual domain of man. 

This degree of civilization requires a class of 
individuals who possess leisure and means of 
subsistence independently of labour; and it is ev- 
ident that such a class of persons must be very 
small, (not to say that it has no existence) in a 
country, where agricultural industry, as is the 
case at this moment, engages so large a portion 
of the general population. 

The civil legislatures of all the states of the 
union disown the rights of primogeniture and 
all species of estates tail. ^ To proscribe such in- 
stitutions in a new country, immense in its ex- 
tent, and democratically constituted, is undoubt- 
edly wise; but it is incontestible, that the con- 
tinual subdivision of estates and their constant 

* See note E. 



117 

dispersion over a vast and thinly populated territo- 
ry, must, by the difficulties attendant on them, op- 
erate prejudicially on learned institutions, when- 
ever a permanent revenue is to be raised far their 
maintenance. 

Nevertheless, it is an act of justice which can* 
not be refused to the various governments of the 
American confederation, to declare, that in eve- 
ry thing that concerns the progress of knowledge, 
they manifest an emulation which cannot be too 
highly praised. The North Americans, so divided 
among themselves in their political opinions, all 
concur in the necessity of encouraging public 
education, as one of the most powerful supports 
of a republican government. In all the states 
of the union, public lands have been appropriat- 
ed to the support of public schools,* and wher- 
ever population and its moral wants have shown 
a necessity tor a higher species of instruction, 
as in the eastern and middle states, public reve- 
nue has been brought to the assistance of the es- 
tablishment of colleges and universities, in which 
education embraces all the branches of human 
knowledge. 

Bee note F. 



118 

Among the latter, the university of Cam- 
bridge in Massachusetts, Hartford and Yale in 
Connecticut, the universities of New York and 
Philadelphia, are justly entitled to the first rank 
by the celebrity of their professors, and the 
number of young men whom they have sent 
forth with an education as extensive as solid. 

The number of colleges is much greater- 
each state possesses at least one, many two, 
or even more. As to the elementary schools, 
they are scattered over the whole surface of the 
United States,* and in traversing the western states, 
it is not unusual to meet with huts, where, for 
want of a better place, the children of the neigh- 
bourhood, are instructed in the first rudiments of 
science. 

A high degree of intellectual cultivation ex- 
ists, among their distinguished lawyers, physi- 
cians, ecclesiastics and merchants. It has given 
the first a preponderating influence in the con- 
duct of public affairs; and it may be asserted, 
without fear of contradiction, that the govern- 
ment of the United States is entirely in the 
hands of the lawyers; a consequence natural 
enough, and which could scarcely be otherwise 



119 

in a country where a talent for public speaking 
is incessantly in demand. 

In those states of the union, in which negro 
slavery is sanctioned by law, and where conse- 
quently all labour is performed by that hetero- 
geneous race, we frequently find, among the op- 
ulent planters, men accomplished in education 
and manners. We can account for this circum- 
stance by remarking, that these planters, reliev- 
ed by their slaves from all the grosser details of 
rural and domestic economy, have more leisure 
to devote to the study of the useful and orna- 
mental sciences, than citizens of states in which 
slavery does not exist. Besides, they associate 
among themselves exclusively, entirely separate 
from the negroes, who, from this very fact, are 
assimilated to other domestic animals; although 
in Virginia, South Carolina, and some other 
states, the proportion of blacks amounts to one 
half of the population, and in Louisiana to even 
more. In this way, the rich living among them- 
selves, reciprocally improve each other in civili- 
zation; whilst elsewhere the whole population, 
or at least the great majority of it, being com- 
posed of free citizens^ the relations between the 



1^0 

rich and poor are materially modified by a spirit 
of equality, and the continual tendency of proper- 
ty to subdivision. If this tendency exist like- 
wise in states tolerating slavery, at least proper- 
ty is retained in the same class; whilst elsewhere 
it is distributed throughout all ranks of society. 
But this advantage enjoyed by the southern plant- 
ers, is almost counterbalanced by the moral in- 
fluence of slavery over those who profit by it. 
It has been asserted in congress, that slavery 
is favourable to liberty in a republic, by the 
striking contrast it constantly offers to the view 
of free citizens. Thus, said they, the degradation 
of the Helots fostered the enthusiastic love of lib- 
erty which formerly distinguished the Spartans. 
Such reasoning is more specious than just. 
The human race is endowed with moral and 
physical faculties which are weakened and de- 
stroyed by the want of proper application and 
regular exercise. For, when to satisfy the wants 
and humours of one class of men, it is only re- 
quisite to perform a simple act of volition on 
the physical activity of another, it is certain that 
the former will more and more be attached to 
their own personal ease: at the same time it is 



121 

not less true that from time to time, they will 
contract habits of indolence and effeminacy, 
which will exert a pernicious influence on their 
moral and physical faculties. 

This effect, this influence is perceptible in 
all the states in which slavery obtains. And 
if, among the members of congress a considera- 
ble number of those who represent the southern 
states are distinguished by a very great fluency 
of speech, and a certain elegance of manners, 
yet force of argument and extent of view, have 
more frequently characterized the members 
from states in which slavery is not allowed.^ 

By a natural consequence of the subdivision of 
property, constantly taking place in the United 

*Imust confess that I never could admire the organization of 
a republic like that of Sparta, (if indeed it ever was a republic,) 
where thirty thousand free citizens, required forty thousand 
slaves to perform the labours of their domestic economy. For 
it is a well established historical fact, that the free Spartans did 
not cultivate the earth, and that they abandoned to their Helots 
the mechanic arts and trades, such as they were in those barbarous 
times. And what did those devoted champions of liberty achieve? 
Incessantly engaged in murder and pillage, they waged a dead- 
ly war against their neighbours whom they rendered to sla- 
very, after having ravaged their lands and destroyed their dwell- 
ings. 

16 



122 

States, there are now but very few hereditary 
estates, although we frequently meet with very 
considerable acquired fortunes. This will be the 
case, as long as the population continues, as at 
present, to bear so great a disproportion to the 
extent of ground it occupies; and this want of he- 
reditary fortunes, can be perhaps attributed to 
no other cause, than the absence of a class of 
men, so common in Europe, called men ofleis- 
tire,^ Too large a class of this description, would 
undoubtedly be inconvenient, but as long as it 
remains within proper bounds, it can scarcely 
be otherwise than very useful, were it only by 
the encouragement it affords to the sciences and 
fine arts, and to other liberal pursuits which 
tend to polish the manners and invest them with 
external grace. It is only among the planters of 
the south, that we find persons of sufficient lei- 
sure to be able to devote themselves to occupa- 
tions of their own choice. But this advantage 
is counterbalanced by the insalubrity of the 
climate, which compels the more opulent to tem- 
porary migration in the summer season; from 
which fact it happens, tliat their leisure is pass- 

^ vSee Appendix, 



123 

ed in journies, without any permanent advan- 
tage to polite literature. 

The greater part of the inhabitants of the mar- 
itime towns, employ themselves wholly in their 
private business, wdth, however, less apparent ac- 
tivity than in Europe, where labour is so minutely 
subdivided. Among those who boast an accom- 
plished education, or whom nature has endowed 
w^ith intellectual faculties of the higher order, pro- 
found and varied knowledge is frequently met 
with. On this head we might -cite some pro- 
fessors attached to different American univer- 
sities. But it is very rare, if nottosay impossible, 
to find in the United States, savans or men of 
letters, whose lives are exclusively devoted to 
the cultivation of any particular branch of 
science. Their labours would be compensated 
neither by pecuniary gain nor even reputation; 
for although it is very common, and even gen- 
eral in the United States, to read and write, the 
ordinary occupations of a majority of the in- 
habitants of both town and country, do not al- 
low them more leisure time than is required to 
run over the gazette of the day or some literary 
journal. Sunday is occupied in reading pious 
books. 



124 

Independently of the time allotted to labour, 
a considerable part of the day is consecrated to 
the conduct of public affairs. — This devotion of 
time and industry is one of the rigorous condi- 
tions belonging to republican institutions. With- 
out pretending to decide, whether it be an advan- 
tage or a disadvantage, v^e shall merely remark, 
that the Americans are incessantly called upon to 
exercise their rights, as legislators, judges, jurors, 
or ministers of the law. 

There are in the United States, in all the large 
cities, literary societies, destined not only to af- 
ford encouragement to, but also to serve as the 
depositories of the sciences and fine arts. Not- 
withstanding, the greater part of the members of 
these associations do little, or absolutely nothing 
for them. They are like plants that languish 
from being neglected. Want of leisure is again 
the cause of their being so little useful^ for al- 
though those who compose them are enlighten- 
ed amateurs of letters, they are almost exclusive- 
ly either rich merchants, lawyers much engar 
ged in their professional duties, or public ojfficers. 

These voluntary associations for the promo- 
tion of the fine arts are in a state of extreme 



125 

weakness, arising from the want of encourage- 
ment, of which, they at this moment stand in need . 
There is scarcely a single American sculptor of 
any reputation. The Americans are not de- 
ficient in painters and especially in limners, but 
unfortunately the state of things in that country 
obliges them to regard painting in no other light 
than as a lucrative trade, and not as an art which 
has conferred great fame on all those who have 
cultivated it with success. 

Nor is architecture, considered as a branch of 
the fine arts, more conspicuous in their public 
edifices. It usually wears a sorry and tasteless 
appearance. Sometimes you see a light wooden 
steeple surmounting a very heavy brick building; 
sometimes a portico in the grecian style, also of 
wood, stuck against the side of a massive build- 
ing. 

Mr. Jefferson, formerly president of the Uni- 
ted States, says somewhere in his Notes on Vir- 
ginia, that the genius of architecture has pro- 
nounced his malediction on that country. This 
may certainly appear extravagant to all who 
have seen the bank of Pennsylvania in Phila- 



126 

delphia, and the capitol of Richmond in Virgi- 
nia. 

The fact is, that their pubhc edifices univer- 
sally suflfer from a mistaken economy. The 
Americans, however, cannot be reproached vsrith 
avarice as a trait of their character, for they of- 
tener run to the opposite extreme. But it is 
certain that they have manifested great parsimo- 
ny in the employment of their public funds; and 
this virtue, (for it is one there,) seems to be a 
natural consequence of their democratical insti- 
tutions. 

In speaking of the state of the sciences in the 
United States, justice requires that we should not 
lose sight of the principal circumstance, which 
seems to have impeded the progress of indige- 
nous literature. This is no other than the iden- 
tity of their language with that of England. 
At the period of their national independence, 
the English language was already rich in mod- 
els of every kind. Consequently, it would have 
been very difficult for the Americans to have 
opened a new road in the domain of literature. 
To this day, the same identity of language, does 
not allow them to create a national literature; 



127 

and thus, all the efforts of genius are, in some 
measure, restricted to an imitation of foreign 
models. 

The Americans are generally very hospitable; 
and notwithstanding the high opinion they en- 
tertain of themselves, receive strangers w^ith ea- 
gerness and cordiality, w^ithout examining too 
scrupulously the letters of recommendation 
presented to them. In the cities, hospitality is 
manifested by frequent invitations to dinner and 
evening parties, which often pave the way for a 
stranger, to a much more permanent acquain- 
tance. But where you pay a visit to Americans 
residing on their estates in the interior of the 
country, the hospitality, which they extend to 
you, carries with it an air of frankness and benev- 
olence quite patriarchal; and the traveller is sure 
to please his host, by behaving towards him 
with unaffected civili^, and by humouring his 
eager curiosity. 

Regarded in their domestic relations, the Amer- 
icans generally appear good heads of families, 
attached to their wives and children, and very 
much devoted to their societv. But the relation 
between parent and child seems to preserve its 



128 

natural strength only until the latter has attain- 
ed the age of puberty. This observation is partic- 
ularly applicable to males. They usually quit 
the paternal roof at j&fteen years of age, for the 
purpose of prosecuting their studies in some col- 
lege, from which they go to an university, to 
complete them. When returned from it, with 
or without an academic, degree, ihe young men 
immediately turn their attention to the choice of 
a profession, and launch into the world to make 
their fortune, often with means furnished by 
their families, and oftener with nothing more 
than a paternal benediction and the brilliant 
dreams of a youthful imagination. 

It does not unfrequently happen that, after 
this first separation, the parents never see their 
children again; especially when the latter seek 
an establishment in the western states, or aban- 
don themselves to the dangers of a maritime life. 

Women in the United States enjoy a reputa- 
tion for morality, which the most violent defam- 
ers of that country have never dared assail. 
They assiduously fulfil the duties of wives and 
mothers. Their deportment is modest, decent 
and very reserved. Petitions for divorce are not 



129 

1 ai e, but they are most generally founded on in- 
compatibility of temper, and are very seldom on 
account of adultery. 

It cannot, howevei-, be denied, that in mari- 
time cities, and even in the metropolis, libertin- 
ism is carried to a great length by the young 
men. But the care that is taken to conceal it 
under the veil of mystery, bears sufficient testi- 
mony to the fact, that this species of irregularity 
forms a contrast to the morals of the country. 
Within a few years only, those mercenary dis- 
pensers of debauchery, w^ho swarm in the large 
towns of Europe, have here made their appear- 
ance in places of public resort; and the time is 
but lately past, when prostitutes were obliged to 
hide themselves from public view, and dared 
not expose their infamous profession in the 
streets, for fear of being hooted at and grossly 
insulted. But it must be confessed, that this 
horror of incontinence has already undergone 
some change, and the aspect of the cities of 
America, is not always, in this particular, very 
favorable to good morals. 

The beauty of the women of the United States j 
is generally acknowledged. But it is of so frafil 
17 



130 

and transient a character, that a sentiment of 
compassion immediately mingles itself with the 
pleasure you experience in heholding the young 
and numerous American beauties, who assemble 
together in their evening entertainments. You 
involuntarily compare them to delicate flowers 
that wither before the slightest breath of a north- 
ern wind. The frequent changes in the tempe- 
rature of the air which distinguish the climate 
of the United States, exert a fatal influence on 
the health of the inhabitants and the beauty of 
the women. 

The Anglo-Americans have been accused of 
an excessive and even a shocking degree of nation- 
al vanity. To a certain extent, this reproach 
may be well founded; for it cannot be denied, 
that they are not very sparing in the praises 
they bestow upon themselves on every occasion. 
But on the other hand, where is the nation with- 
out vanity? Besides, this national vanity shows 
itself so often in the United States, because there 
are there more numerous opportunities for its dis- 
play, than in any other country. It is inherent, 
in the nature of a republican government, based 
on the sovereignty of the people. Who does not 



131 

know that of all sovereigns, the sovereign people 
is most avaricious of praise; and as their suffrages 
are indispensible to the election either of a su- 
preme magistrate, an inspector of a market, and 
even of an officer of a regiment of militia, it 
follows, that the ambition of the one and avarice 
of others, singing in chorus, the praises of the sov- 
reign people, have finished by reducing the per- 
petual adulation addressed to them, in the speech- 
es of their orators, and the columns of their ga- 
zettes, to the simple formula which declares, that 
the American nation is the most enlightened 
and virtuous on earth. This assertion may be 
even found in the annual messages of the pre^^ 
dent of the United States. 

The vanity of which we speak certainly ex- 
ists in an equal degree, in other countries; but 
it is differently and less frequently exhibited, 
because elections of every kind and political 
meetings are either of more rare occurrence or 
have no existence at all. 

The Americans are in general religious. This 
assertion is more applicable to the inhabitants of 
the northern and middle states, than to those of 
the other parts of the Union; for, it is notorious 



13E 

that in the southern and western states, an abso- 
lute indiflerence, in regard to religious matters, 
is quite common.* Sunday and other great 
feasts, which are very rare with them, are strict- 
ly observed by the Americans. An acquaint- 
ance with, or to speak more correctly, the read- 
ing of the holy scriptures, is very general in the 
United States, even among the labouring classes. 
But the condition of the clergy is far from en- 
viable. They are subjected to the influence of 
republican forms, and like the rest of the citi- 
zens, compelled to go through the ordeal of elec- 
tion. In the greater portion of the United 
States the parochial duties of the churches are 
performed by ecclesiastics, whom the congrega- 
tion, at whose expense the church has been built, 
choose from among the candidates presented to 
them. They receive a fixed salary, and their 
perquisites amount to very little. A situation so 
precarious is calculated, neither to excite emula- 
tion among individuals devoted to an ecclesiasti- 
cal life, nor to induce young scholars to study the- 

*Nevertheless persons worthy of credit, assure me, that with- 
in some years past, religious sentiments conformable to the 
christian doctrine, have gained groimd in Virginia and in other 
southern states. 



133 

ological science profoundly. Hence pulpit ora- 
tory has not yet shone very brightly in tkd Uni- 
ted States. Scarcely can we name any Amer- 
ican divines who have acquired much reputa- 
tion by their eloquence or writings; and the few 
that might be adduced, are to be found in Massa- 
chusetts and Connecticut, where the spirit of 
religion most'prevails. 

The same spirit of investigation and control, 
which presides over the political institutions of 
the United States, would likewise make religious 
creeds subordinate to human reason. Tolera- 
tion is there without restriction. Every species 
of worship is free, and none provided for by the 
state. Thence results the multiplication of sects 
to such a degree, that it would be difficult to 
enumerate them. Having no cause of mutual 
jealousy, they live in peace with each other, or 
at most, wage a war of the pen, which does not 
produce the least sensation in the public mind. 

Contrary to the exclusive spirit which ani- 
mates their European brethren, the Roman Cath- 
olics of the United States have willingly acced- 
ed to this system of absolute toleration. 



134 

There are also in the United States, commu- 
nities of Jews, although inconsiderable in num- 
ber; and it will without doubt appear strange, 
that the Jews, participating in all the rights of 
American citizens, live among themselves with- 
out the least intermixture with the christians. 
Some exceptions might be cited, but they are 
very rare, and the quotation of them would only 
prove the fact. 

n Of all the religious denominations compo- 
sing the population of the United States, the so- 
ciety of friends, so justly celebrated under the 
title of Quakers^ is most distinguished by the love 
of order and charity among its members. To the 
divine principle of universal benevolence, which 
constitutes the true spirit of Christianity and 
which they put into practice, is owing the good 
state of prisons, hospitals and schools; and indeed 
all the efforts which have been made to civilize 
the Indians. 

The Methodists^ another very numerous sect, 
are remarkable by their zeal for the propagation 
of the christian faith among the Indians and 
negro slaves. But the sect of Unitarians, or 
followers of Dr. Priestly, augments most rapidly 



135 



at this time. This phenomenon is curious, and 
we may well be astonished that it can obtain in 
a country, where human reason is so jealous of 
its prerogatives. For, the doctrine of the Uni^ 
tarians or Anti-Trinitarians, is a mixture of faith 
and philosophical skepticism difficult to be re- 
conciled. They admit the Bible as the founda- 
tion of their belief, and then declare that it is un- 
intelligible to human reason and opposed to it. 
They acknowledge the divine mission of Jesus 
Christ, and yet deny the divinity of his nature. 

It is proper nevertheless to state, that this sect 
counts among its adherents, a great number of 
individuals, who do honor to the human species 
by their exalted virtues and the good example 
they oiaTer to their fellow citizens. 

The writings of Thomas Payne having had 
a very extensive circulation in that country, 
have not failed to disseminate deism. But the 
deists, although they have nothing to fear from 
the laws, have not yet dared to organize them- 
selves into a religious community or to open a 
temple of worship. 

In a word, what is the present state of society 
in the United Stetes? A civilized population, but 



136 

spread over an immense and still new territory. 
All is in motion and rapidly advances towards a 
better order of things. But this motion, in con- 
sequence of the very great disparity between 
the extent of territory, and the population, is 
rather physical than moral. Human industry 
there seems absorbed in the desire of wealth; 
and they do not think as yet of enjoying their 
acquisitions. 

Those who seek but for an easy and tranquil 
existence, vrithout being dependant on any man; 
those whose situation would induce them to 
withdraw from unmerited oppression; those, in 
fine, who only aspire to the lucrative employ- 
ment of their physical force, with good conduct 
and sobriety, may easily realize all their hopes in 
the United States. 

It is, above all, the country for those who are 
unfortunate and yet possess means of subsistence, 
or for men without fortune but laborious and 
temperate. Much time must yet elapse before 
this country becomes the sanctuary of the sci- 
ences, the fine arts and those intellectual enjoy- 
ments which form the charm of society. 



137 

Foreigners who have made a long stay in the 
United States remark, that Europeans who vis- 
ited them, either through curiosity or belonging 
to some public mission, rarely become attached 
to the country, but are for the greater part im- 
patient to leave it. Is this the fault of the Amer- 
icans or of the strangers? It is probable that 
both are to blame. If, as they have been ac- 
cused, the Americans are conceited and selfish, 
on examining the matter more closely, we shall 
perhaps find, that the Europeans on their part, 
exact too much. 

In terminating this sketch, we admonish the 
reader not to expect to find a portrait of the Uni- 
ted States resembling the original in all its de- 
tails. Such a task would require considerable 
time for the collection of materials, as well as 
that philosophical quickness of perception, be- 
stowed by nature on her favorites alone. The 
author is satisfied with uniting in this compo- 
sition, the characteristic traits of a country in- 
teresting in many respects, and little known to 
Europe. He is not sure of having been always 
accurate, but he has endeavoured to be impar- 
tial; and hopes that the Americans will not re- 
proach him with voluntary error. 
18 



APPENDIX, 



--^ge^ 



NOTE A. PAGE 9. 



This charter was granted by Charles the se- 
cond, in the fourteenth year of his reign, and it 
remains unchanged, except the alterations ne- 
cessary to make the judicial processes and the 
oaths of office and allegiance conformable to the 
principles of the revolution. The constitution of 
Rhode Island is one of those, in which, as the 
author observes, the democratic ingredient seems 
most to prevail, and is a striking illustration of 
his remarks, that our contest with England was 
more for political freedom than civil rights. It 
was for both, indeed; for a surrender of the 
former, would have endangered the latter. 

NOTE B. PAGE 14. 

At the time of the compilation of his work, 
Mr. Seybert was a member of congress from 
Pennsylvania, and fully availed himself of the 
ample means in his power of rendering it au- 
thentic and complete. 



140 



NOTE C. PAGE 35. 



The existence of slavery among us, is to be at- 
tributed to the British government, and not to 
us. The colonies, which now compose this na- 
tion, remonstrated against its introduction; but 
it was insisted on in Europe, because it was be- 
lieved that the mother country would profit by 
the labours of the blacks. 

By their great increase, and large infusion in- 
to the mass of society in some of the states of 
this confederacy, our situation has become full 
of difficulty and peril. Every man among us 
that reflects, is alive to the importance and deli- 
cacy of the subject. The injurious tendency of 
slavery, so visible in the South,- — its inhumani- 
ty, — its contradiction of our acknowledged prin- 
ciples and boasted institutions, — the danger of 
oppressing a mass of human creatures, becoming 
every day more enlightened and consequently 
more powerful, restless and resentful, — are better 
understood and more properly felt in this, than 
they can be in any other countrv. 

A thousand schemes have been devised of 
amelioration and relief. But the great diversity 
of opinion has been injurious, as it always is, to 
the successful prosecution of any. Many of the 
projects, inadequate perhaps to their object^ 
were twharted by the opposition of liberal and 
philanthrophic persons; and others, more feasi- 
ble, by the selfish, timid, narrow minded and jeal- 
ous. Public opinion is manifestly in favour of 



141 

the adoption of some plan; and certainly an im- 
perfect one, is better than none at all. 

The idea of manumission, however gradual, is 
justly rejected. Free blacks are a greater nuis- 
ance than even slaves themselves. As long as 
they remain, they should be held in bondage; for 
they can never amalgamate with us, nor be ad- 
mitted to the privileges of citizens, but must be 
for ever a subordinate and degraded cast. Such 
a mockery of freedom would be worse than sla- 
very: it would not more contribute to their hap- 
piness, and yet endanger ours. 

Brilliant hopes were, for a short time, inspired 
by an invitation to our free blacks from the gov- 
ernment of Hayti: but they have been utterly 
disappointed. The reservoir itself would have 
been too small to contain them all, even if it 
had not been prematurely closed, by the prejudi- 
ces of the Haytiens and the caprice and arbitra- 
ry character of their rulers. A great number of 
the North American blacks, who took refuge 
there, have returned to our shores. They found 
a foreign language, a disordered and ignorant so- 
ciety, intolerant notions of religion, and a despo- 
tic government. 

It is now generally admitted, that if we w4sh 
to remove our coloured population, we must pro- 
vide them with a home and country, where they 
may speak their native tongue, enjoy under 
our protection the republican institutions they 
have learnt from us to appreciate, and be a homo 
genious nation. 



142 

Some of their zealous and even enlightened ad- 
vocates, have recommended, that they should he 
conveyed (as rapidly as they may he emancipa- 
ted in the natural course of things.) to the north 
west coast of America, and there established as 
an independent people. This project, which does 
not effectually separate them from us, and is the 
most laborious and expensive, has nothing to re- 
commend it but the sincerity and zeal in which 
it was conceived, and which were determined to 
manifest themselves in so holy a cause, by form- 
ing some design for its promotion. 

The only plausible scheme that has yet been 
devised, is the removal of the blacks to Africa. 
It is supported by a vast majority of those who 
have turned their attention to the subject, and 
has met the approbation of some of our wisest 
and most distinguished statesmen. A territory 
has already been there provided, for their recep- 
tion, by the American colonization society; and 
the colony, though unfortunate in its infancy, 
like all settlements in new and unknown coun- 
tries, has since enjoyed a more prosperous exist- 
ence than any of the early and similar estab- 
lishments on the coast of America. This terri- 
tory, called the Montserado, was purchased from 
the native tribes in December of 1821, and has 
since been furnished with inhabitants, occasion- 
ally and at irregular periods, at the expense of 
the society. The population now amounts to 
about four hundred. — If the means at the com- 
mand of the society were greater, emigration 



148 

would be regular and rapid; for the blacks man^ 
ifest a decided preference and strong inclination 
for that course. When the society of Friends, of 
North Carolina, came to a determination recent- 
ly of manumitting all their slaves, and gave them 
the choice of the place to which they would be 
conveyed, at least two thirds selected Africa. 
Most of the others preferred Hayti; and a few, 
the non-slaveholding states of the west. But 
little, however, can be effected by a revenue of 
only ten thousand dollars, derived from the vol- 
untary fluctuating and uncertain contributions 
of charitable individuals and societies. Nothing, 
indeed, can be done by means so slender, but to 
lay the foundation of a colony, and from the 
practicability of the scheme. 

This has been amply done; and the projec- 
tors and promoters of the work look for its com- 
pletion to the general government or the states. 
The former may be deterred, by the morbid- 
ness on this subject of the southern members of 
iiie union, from lending its assistance further 
than hitherto; that is, than maintaining a vessel 
of war on the coast of Africa, for the suppression 
of the slave-trade, and fostering the village it 
has established for the reception of recaptured 
Africans. But it is highly probable, that many 
of the latter will give it their effectual support. 

It is a scheme of the most national and philan- 
thropic character. It comprises every kind of char- 
ity, the most permanent and enlarged. The ad- 
vantages to us are obviousj to humanity, not les3 



144 

so; to the blacks, equally; to Africa, immense* 
We rid ourselves of a deadly and growing evil 
and foul reproach, and open a wider field for the 
increase and industry of our fellow-citizens. We 
provide a home for the colored man, where he 
may enjoy the happiness and freedom that Pro- 
vidence has granted us. We plant the banners 
of civilization and the gospel on the shore of Afri- 
ca; whence they may effect their mild and grad- 
ual conquest of the entire continent, and com- 
pensate it for the miseries heretofore inflicted. 

Whether the colored population of the whole 
United States can be removed, by any plan what- 
soever, we shall not decide. We are not san- 
guine enough to expect or hope it. In the south- 
ern states they are, from the nature of the soil 
and climate, infinitely more valuable than else- 
where, more numerous, more closely interwov- 
en into the texture of society, and more difficult 
therefore to remove by gradual and natural caus- 
cs» The people of those states seem to cling to 
slavery as the pillar of their wealth and indepen- 
dence; and it is too much to be feared, that if any 
measures, however moderate and proper, relative 
to that subject, be brought before the national 
legislature, they will offer an opposition propor- 
tioned to what they suppose to be their interest 
in the question. 

But, fortunately, the condition of the middle, 
western and more northern states is very differ- 
ent. In Virginia, Maryland, Tennessee, Ken- 
tucky, Missouri, and perhaps North Carolina, 



145 

where the chmate is more salubrious, the slaves 
less numerous and more enlightened, the white 
population more vigorous and pressing upon the 
blacks, ready to fill the vacuum to be created by 
their removal — where the interests of society are 
not blended with that baneful institution, but pre- 
judice is against it— there, we may hope with- 
out being accused of too much enthusiasm, that 
the scheme of gradual emancipation and remo* 
val, and transportation to the coast of Africa, or 
elsewhere, will have its full and happiest effect. 
It must necessarily be slow at first. But every 
successive wave of emigration will deepen the 
channel. Such was the case, in the peopling of this 
continent. A few straggling vessels, a few tim- 
id adventurers, laid the foundations of this na- 
tion, after repeated and fruitless attempts, and 
opened the reservoir into which, for centuries, 
have been pouring the oppressed and enterpriz- 
ing inhabitants of Europe. Such will be the 
case with Africa. Emigration will not be sup- 
plied, as from Europe hither, from all the or- 
ders of society, draining off a surplus that was 
not missed: but will be confined to a single class 
and colour, whose situation and affinity must im- 
pel them to go. It will not be checked, as it 
was in Europe, by statutes and penalties; but en- 
couraged by the laws, promoted by the nature 
of things, and accelerated by the elastic pressure 
of a different and better species of population, 
It is not too bold to assert, that at this moment, 
thousands of slaves are held in bondage, in those 

19 



146 



states, merely from the impolicy of manumis- 
sion; and that an outlet is eagerly sought, 
through which they may be poured. That 
they themselves are willing to go, is proved by 
the fact, that in less than a year, and notwith- 
standing the predictions of the wise, six thoii- 
sand voluntarily embarked for Hayti. If their 
expedition had been successful, and they had 
not been so cruelly disappointed, thousands would 
have followed them, and a continual stream been 
kept up, until the island was full or this country 
exhausted. It is in the very nature of things,, 
that people situated as they are, should ardently 
embrace a scheme so calculated for their welfare. 



NOTE D. PAGE 37. 

The constitution itself provides for the admis- 
sion of new states into the confederacy, in the 
following words: "New states may be admitted 
by congress into this union." 

Under this authority, congress direct the time 
and manner of such admissions. But the con- 
ciseness of the phrase in which the power is con- 
ferredj and the use of the word "may," which 
implies or seems to imply an unlimited discretion, 
have occasioned a great variety of opinion on the 
extent to which the power may be exercised. 

Some persons contend that congress have not 
the right of refusing admittance to a territory, af- 
ter it has attained a certain population. How- 
everyit evidently rests with congress to determine 



147 

what that population shall be. And yet it would 
certainly be contrary to the spirit of our institu- 
tions, to hold a territory for ever in vassallage, or 
debar it, even for a short time after it has grown 
to a suitable importance, from those rights and 
privileges, for which we ourselves so obstinate- 
ly struggled. 

It has also been a matter of much disputCj 
whether Congress may impose upon a territo- 
ry applying for admission, any condition that 
they please. This objection almost resolves it- 
self into the former. The prevailing sentiment, 
(formed during the discussion of the Missouri 
question,) seems to be, that Congress do possess 
the right; although it may be sometimes high- 
ly inexpedient to enforce it. The only limit 
to their power would appear to us to be, that 
the condition should be compatible with the re- 
publican form of government. The time may 
come, when that power of rejection will be a 
protecting bulwark, to repress the exorbitant ex- 
tension of our territory and shield us from in- 
trusion. 



NOTE 6. PAGE 44, 

The Post-office may almost be said to have 
become a separate department. It has grown 
to be one of the most important ramifications of 
our internal policy; extending over the whole 
face of the country, carrying information not 



148 

only of domestic but of foreign events to the 
door of every citizen, and bringing the remotest 
regions to be neighbouring districts. It may 
vsrell be said to be the bind, that is wound around 
the fasces of our Unibn; for without it, a repub- 
lican government could not be wielded over 
such an extent of surface and variety of affairs. 
If we enumerate the post-masters, clerks, con- 
tractors, drivefe, and all the other persons ne- 
cessary to such an establishment, we shall find 
perhaps that there are more under the immedi- 
ate and indirect control of the Post Master Gen- 
eral, than under any other branch of the gov- 
ernment; and we may then form some idea of 
the power and importance of the station. In- 
deed, the only respect in v/hich the Post Mas-^ 
ter General can be said to be subordinate to the 
Secretarv of the Treasurv, is, that he renders 
through him to Congress, a quarterly account 
of the expenditures and profits of the establish- 
ment. These seemed to come properly within 
the province of the financial department. But 
in every thing else. Congress communicate with 
the Post Master General directly, and as with 
the chief of a separate department; as may be 
observed in the laws establishing new post-offi- 
ces or post-roads, and building bridges, &c. for 
the convenient transportation and safety of the 
mail. 



149 

NOTE 6. PAGE 45. 

The learned author has expressed himself 
vaguely, in saying that the President is "con- 
jointly with the Senate, commander in chief." 
He is, alone, commander in chief of the army 
and navy. He appoints all officers by and w ith 
the advice and consent of the Senate; but he 
may dismiss them at pleasure from the service. 
This, however, is seldom or never done, without 
the intervention of a court-martial. As it is a 
power which appears to subserve no useful pur- 
pose, and may be converted by daring and ambi- 
tious men to the perpetration of the worst de- 
signs, it is highly probable that the bill now 
before congress, for suppressing it, will become 
a part of the constitution. 

NOTE 7, PAGE 54. 

The attempts which several times were made 
to abolish the military academy, have entirely 
failed; and that institution, so admirably suited 
to our wants and our form of government, has 
become one of the favourites of the nation. It 
has also essentially improved, both in a literary 
point of view and in its internal organization. — 
The slight disturbances which once took place 
at West Point, and which the distinguished au- 
thor views in so serious a light, were entirely 
accidental, and are not likely to occur again: 



150 

and the useful operation of that school, in fur- 
nishing not only our regular army, hut our mili- 
tia too, with accomplished officers, has woven it 
permanently into our political institutions. In- 
deed, it is rather a part of the militia, than of 
the regular army; of the civil, than the military 
organization of the country. In the inception 
of a great system of internal improvements, we 
have already derived essential service, from the 
labours of gentlemen educated at the academy. 

As civil and topographical engineers, they are 
aow exploring every part of our vast country, 
that the smallness of their number will permit 
them to reach; and it is difficult to tell, whence 
we could derive a sufficient body of scientific 
engineers, as the work progresses, but from the 
bosom of such an institution. Their education 
and pursuits enable them, certainly, to provide 
at once for the commercial intercourse and mil- 
itary defence of the nation, better than persons 
solely devoted to either enquiry. 

The number of cadets is about two hundred 
and fifty-one; and they are from the different 
states, nearly in proportion to their respective 
representation in congress. From Maine, there 
are seven; from New-Hampshire, seven; Mas- 
sachusetts, fifteen; Rhode-Island, two; Connec- 
ticut, six; Vermont, nine; New- York, thirty-five; 
New-Jersey, seven; Pennsylvania, twenty -nine; 
Delaware, two; Maryland, ten; Virginia, twen- 
ty-fourj North CaroUna, thirteen; South Caro- 



151 

lina, twelve; Georgia, eight; Kentucky, four- 
teen; Tennessee, eleven; Ohio, tw^elve; Louis- 
iana, four; Indiana, five; Missouri, four; Alaba- 
ma, five; Mississippi, two; Illinois, two; Michi- 
gan, two; Florida, two; District of Columbia, 
two. 



NOTE 8. PAGE 56. 

It is scarcely necessary to remark, that our na- 
vy has been considerably strengthened since that 
period, not only by the addition of several ships of 
the largest class, and many frigates and sloops 
of war, but also by the improvement of our na- 
val stations, the increased facility of obtaining 
materials, in consequence of internal improve- 
ments the fortification of our harbours and rivers, 
and, above all, the growing public sentiment in 
its favour. 

NOTE 9. PAGE 58. 

It cannot be denied, that many of our naval 
officers are better acquainted with the practical 
than the scientific part of their profession. This 
deficiency has been remedied, in some degree, 
by the stricter examination now required for 
promotion, and it will be entirely removed by 
a well conducted naval academy. The gallant- 
ry of our officers has heretofore blinded us to any 
imperfections; but the nation js now convinced 



152 

that something is wanting, and seem determin- 
ed to supply it. 

NOTE 10. PAGE 65. 

To this vagueness of the constitution, we owe 
some of the greatest and most wholesome pow- 
ers of the general government. For instance, 
the right of establishing a national hank, of 
founding naval and military colleges, of making 
roads and canals, is an implied or constructive 
power. It is a vagueness indispensible in a 
form of government like ours; to clothe the re- 
presentatives of the people with authority neces- 
sary to their usefulness, and adapt our institutions 
to the growth and prosperity of the country. 
The danger of its admitting of too unlimited an 
interpretation, is obviated by the jealous watch- 
fulness of the state governments, and the juris- 
diction of the supreme court. 

The time no doubt will come, when all the 
disputed points of the constitution will have 
been decided. Its framers will then be applaud- 
ed for their wisdom, in not making it immuta- 
ble, and binding it tightly around the body politic, 
so as to impede and cramp its motions, but leav- 
ing it an easy flowing garment, that might adorn 
and adapt itself to every size and posture. 

In a government like ours, a confederacy of 
active, enlightened and independent states, with 
conflicting views, and sometimes interests, it is 
easier to put a proper restraint on vague and un- 



153 

defined powers, than to give them an energy, 
however useful and necessary, beyond the ex- 
press provisions of the instrument that confers 
them. 



NOTE 11. PAGE 75. 

We are not aware that, in any state, the mur- 
der of a slave is not punishable by death. His 
testimony is, of course, and properly, rejected; 
for it is utterly impossible, from the influence 
exerted over him and his condition, that he 
should be an impartial and credible witness. 

It must, however, be acknowledged, that some 
juries, (from prejudice, we presume,) but too 
reluctantly avenge the injuries of that unfortu- 
nate race. 



NOTE 12. PAGE 76. 

The greatest difference between the adminis- 
tration of justice in this country and in England, 
consists in the political jurisdiction of the su- 
preme court. That august tribunal is, perhaps, 
peculiar in that respect. 

NOTE 13. PAGE 81. 

By a "local court of original jurisdiction," the 
acute and distinguished author means, we pre- 
sume, the district court; from which appeals 

£0 



154 

are had to the circuit court. He is in error, 
however, in calling it a "local court," as it is one 
of the courts of the United Sates. A "local 
court," as we should understand it, would signi- 
fy a state court. 

NOTE 14. PAGE 102 

Nothing can be added to the concise but lu- 
minous views here taken, of the penitentiary 
system of the United States. The causes to 
which he justly attributes, the failure of many 
specious and alluring schemes of philanthropy 
in the organization of prisons, have begun to be 
understood and obviated. "The want of a pro- 
per classification of culprits," will be remedied 
by separation and solitary confinement. "The 
luxury of charity, with which prisoners are pro- 
vided for," will be corrected by experience of 
its bad effects. And the "abuse of the pardon- 
ing power," will be restrained by the good sense 
of executive officers, or by an all-powerful pub- 
lic opinion. 

Solitary confinement of those who have com- 
mitted the more heinous offences, and classifica- 
tion of the rest, according to their ages, sexes 
and the nature and degree of their guilt, may 
still be rendered compatible with industry, 
economy and gentleness within the prison walls. 
The experiment cannot be said to have been 
yet fully tried; and the failures and obstacles 



155 



heretofore encountered, must be attributed not 
so much to the system itself, as to the e^xtreme 
difficulty of its practical application. That dif- 
ficulty will soon be almost entirely removed, by 
the two penitentiaries now erecting in Penn- 
sylvania, on the new plan; and the system will 
then receive a fair and final trial. If it should 
still prove defective, (though reason seems to 
recommend it, as well as benevolence,) atten- 
tion will be turned to some other scheme; and 
certainly the enlightened and enquiring spirit 
that pervades the country on that subject, must 
ultimately lead to the discovery and adoption of 
the best, 

NOTE E. PAGE 116. 

Although estates tail are not positively pro- 
hibited by law, yet they can scarcely be said to 
exist, for they can be destroyed by a simple con- 
veyance in fee. In England, they resort for the 
same purpose to intricate and antiquated forms; 
such as fine and common recovery. 

NOTE F. PAGE 117. 

The system of public schools may be justly 
considered, as a necessary part of our republi- 
can institutions; for where the people are self- 
governed, they should be enlightened. 

This idea prevails pretty generally throughout 



156 

the United States, and is daily, by experience, 
becoming stronger. In those states, in which 
no system of pubUc schools has been yet adopted 
and no funds appropriated to the object, a wise- 
er and more liberal spirit is beginning to reign. 
In Maryland, or at least in the city of Baltimore, 
we are about adopting a plan worthy of our 
prosperity and resources. 

In some of the states, very large funds are set I 

apart for public education. New England is 
particularly distinguished in that respect. The an- 
nual expenditure for that object in Boston alone, j 
is seventy thousand dollars; and the advantages ^ 
and beauty of the system are there most strong- 
ly exemplified. The school fund in Connecti- 
cut, amounts to two million^ seven hundred and 
sixty-four thousand, three hundred and sixty- 
nine dollars, and yields an annual revenue of 
one hundred and* five thousand, eight hundred 
and sixty-two dollars. 

Pennsylvania also adopted, in 1819, the New 
England system of public schools. The estab- 
lishment, though yet in its infancy, promises, 
from the wealth and populousness of that state, 
to be one of the most extensive and complete.— 
Up to 1824, ten thousand, eight hundred and 
nine children had been admitted into the pub- 
lic schools, and in that year nearly three thou- 
sand more were added. 

Virginia, too, has devoted several millions of 
dollars to the institution of schools and a univer- 



157 

sity. Perhaps, in the present state of literature 
there, she might have better omitted the latter, 
which has formidable rivals and substitutes in 
other places, and applied the immense sums it 
cost to a more complete extention of primary 
schools, whose absense cannot be supplied. The 
rich, who are those that most commonly pur- 
sue the higher branches of education, can go 
abroad to obtain them; but the poor citizen is 
confined to the spot, and if he finds not the 
means of education there, he finds them not at 
all. 

New York, the leader in the great work of 
internal improvement, has not been more back- 
ward in the cause of general education. She 
appropriated five hundred thousand acres of land 
to the purpose; of which three hundred and 
ninety-six thousand, nine hundred and forty- 
seven had been sold in eighteen hundred and 
sixteen. She has, besides, devoted an an- 
nual income of sixty-four thousand, and fifty- 
three dollars. In eighteen hundred and twenty 
four, there were seven thousand, six hundred 
and forty-two school districts in the state; three 
hundred and eleven of which were established 
during that year: and the number of children 
taught, for the average of nine months, was 
four hundred and two thousand, nine hundred 
and forty. The general school-fund amounts 
to one million, seven hundred and thirty thou- 
sand dollars, and the local school fund to thirty- 
Seven thousand. The sum paid to teachers. 



158 

out of the public funds, was one hundred 
and eighty-two thousand, seven hundred and 
forty-one dollars. 

Besides these schools provided at the public ex- 
pense, there are many others maintained by 
charitable individuals. Such, for instance, are 
the schools of the Free-school society, in the 
city of New York, at which thirty thousand 
white, and one thousand seven hundred coloured 
children are taught. And in addition to the 
funds applicable to the common schools, the 
sums of money and other appropriations given, 
by the state, to the several academies and colle- 
ges, are immense. 



159 



NOTE 17. PAGE 119. 



Table of the White Population in 1810 and in 1820 loith the increc^, and the Col- 
oured Population at the samepet-iod, icith the increase and ratios of increase. 




o S 

t-t>(JCJ 

o ^ 
g rt> 



2.S 

us (« 


O 
►1 






PT1 


CO 






ti* 




•T3 


CO 






O O p' 

p p 

2- 2- 
5' S* 
p P 



p 5 






S o "^ 

2.^ •■ 



3 ~ 



» *t3 



05 ?i, 



-4 >-' O 

to 00 H- 



H- CO JSS 

j-J *^ cc 

"lo'w'bo 
ts I— I to 

^i h-i o 



lo "oo ^ "ts ''^ "%- "**. ^CT %• "w 1» "bo Its "h- 1-- lo "*>■ "►^ "'•-4 1 

Ol-^OSWl— >tOC*aWl— 'OlOCiCOi*^-:!*— <OtOW' 

*».tni— '--Jcr>ciO*«--3i— '*>-oocomtD*>.woo5! 



1 21 



ta 



cot;i*»H-J.o*^a5t5 "o ji>"cc JO JO tn ^^ JO 
c*j-JCConc*5H-'OciVt-'tnOJt»ic^'S'^-'*'tD 



t3 tJH— »t;i.^7>fc..tC,;i.C*5--JCCOnCCH-'OCiU«t-'OiW:&00'^>-'*»'tD 

iOOOCASJOtnCOCiTiaitS^Cl'*^^ "^J^J^ O CpH -^l ^^J^jf^J^J® J75 J^ "^ 
'<y5'V<"--3^^'c*:^'lO^'*"^"cril3:i^ *» JO O tO^"o >^--J00H-)*».rf*.Js3co 

*— tOOOt;iOOOOtn*>.-JJ0^34s.a5*>0'^6000eOOt*^>^ODh-'l— 'tOtC>. 
>^t-'GOJNS''30CJOOCno>-<lM'>*^OsOOtf^JsStO»f^tOJ^a;t— 'CCtgOaO 



-J JS2 

CO 00 



l^i i_i CO I-' 

*».i— 'CJca^^tD^-'lo>^i>■^— '*>-iOt*^t;''s3 
OS CO JO ^2 00 to - -■ '- — ..^ >.-- ^ »r. 



^ cw ^^ »~" v^ w^ ' — "™ ^"^ **" •— ' ' "-^^ "-^^ ""^^ ' ' 

5 H- CTJ 00 to ~J O^rfS'J'J i^^J^ J— 'i-'j'^J^ 

5~bolo^tc~bD''-<j"Vv-'lo^--j"c;i ►-* lo'bi^ -^ 

V ..M. ^r^ I 1 F T> t_i r^ r n b£^ ^.1 -^^ ffT) CA k^ k^ (^ 



co~jcx)crtaj^ia5*>'t— 'Oil— '<^i^'*^'^*'^ 
v< CO -^ lo 1— ' io oo en to _iOj^:^_^^3_o_»^ o o_cn_ 



tOCOH-'H-h-' cnlsOoi 

_. _ ^"o"I-'"o"^'c5 

CO*w4!'OOtOl— '*». O 
O I— ' Ca I— t JsS to Oi 03 i4^l 



J<1 

"oo 

•-I 
__ol 

Hi -4 

ffii 00 

go 

O Ox 
• <3i 



to H-* -^l 
rf^ *» 00 

rf^ rfk I— ' 



"cn'co 05 

1— ' *^ CO 

00 u^ o 



K-> M) H-> t^ 1-^ 

1— 'ii^ oooo-iioa^i-'JOt-'i*^ 

-^Cni— 'fO--lOtOCOcn-JCO 00^ ^ZfSCi 

^^'bolo'o'to'o^"*- colo ~aco— j'^-^-^toto 

iw;c«tC<lH->— tOOOCOH-'OOOCr'tn05l-»00'<!!?5 
00J0t04i.tCtDO0D*«-l— ' COOOOCOJO'^OtO 



i-i ^ <! t;a. CO 00 lo en en H-" C5 *». H-i CO JO w 

o i-«i— 'otojooocojo4='tOH-cn ^^ "^j^J-'i-^i^ ^T^J^J^ 

"cO l-'^Co"oi^^"oo'olo"bD'^'>t»-^"cO^"o^ ►P>.i*>-OCOtDtO^-:f~-JOD 
C0-^^5-JO5*>.JO^3 ^1 CO IOtO'-'OlO*>COaiH-'l— 'CiOCSOi^CCOO 

oiiii'it'aitDooJootfa'Coi— 'tOh- 'to joo-aco--?-^cj~Jtsoo^to 




I-" h-' JO 



CJ tCj.t— 'CO •*5>->fc»C3>*^W 

J-" 05 ->j 1-4 ooj;ijT5jOj-Jjp'_*'jr>^ooj-' 
o»"a>"to'k)"o5"c?^to"to^ao"t3"»^"w'c;i"co~CT jf^^Vl I^ 



--5 >— * I— » 

to 

en O 



toCoto--!Cnco§;-j>t»aoiOi— 'OOOCocntocnCOH-' cno 

1-^ O CO C: I— ' en 0?OJOJO><=^HO^'^>^gig^O''^ COig- go 



col 
en 



CO- 
00 
CJ 



00 OOl 

*^ o 



h-i to 
*». 00 05 
05^ 



to (-> tn 

lO H-1 >-' 

C;i CO O 



to 

CO 



CO to <! 

O H- C5 



»-' JO 

CO 00 CTJ 
to 00 00 

o oo 



OCtn)— COCO!— It— ' •— ' 
i— '--atn*-OOH-'COO 
JO 



CO Cs 
I I 

t— ^— ' 
o o 



to JO CO CO --J 
I I I I I 

H-* I— ' h- ' I— ' I— » 

o o o o o 



JO H^ *» 

CO CO en 00 I*!' 00 

CO tn lO -^ en 
I I I 

H-' H-i I— ' 

o o o 



' H- CO 
' C0J3 



o o 



o o 



to 00 oi' en *^ CO lo 

tOOOO'^lf-'tOtOtO*-' 



CO 

o 



c: -4 to tn 
till 

I— * H-i K^ >— 1 

o o o o 



en ^o V eo <p 

!-* H-» ^- t— ' l-J 

o o o o o 



JO 



160 



NOTE 1^. PAGE 120. 



If the differences, which the observant author 
notices, really exist, they are in a rapid progress 
of obliteration. In our earlier days, when large 
fortunes were confined principally to the south- 
ern states, and wealth produced among the plant- 
ers that hospitality and elegance for which they 
are still remarkable, the people of the north 
were simple and industrious farmers or mer- 
chants. But successful commerce has made 
the latter rich, and given them a taste for the 
pleasures of refined society; and while they equal 
their fellow citizens of the south in hospitality 
and elegance, they surpass them in splendour 
and munificence. 

The cultivation of the arts and sciences has 
also been carried further in the north than in 
the south. In a literary point of view, tkere is 
no comparison. 

Whatever may be the moral effect of slavery, 
it is most conspicuous, not upon the upper class- 
es, but upon the lower; giving them feelings of 
pride and habits of indolence, that destroy their 
respectability and usefulness. That valuable 
order of society called the yeomanry, cannot ex- 
ist by the side of slavery. Between that bane- 
ful institution and the wealthy and proud pro- 
prietor, there lies a desart. If such a state of 
things is favourable to republican virtue and 
happiness; then are the unwholesome swamps 



161 



and dismal pine barrens of Georgia, more beau- 
itful and pleasant than the green hills and val- 
lies of Pennsylvania. 



NOTE 19. PAGE 21. 

In turning over our author's pages, vre find 
that he says in page 21, that none of our moun- 
tains exceed tw^elve hundred feet in height. They 
certainly bear no proportion to our mighty rivers 
and lakes, and the vast extent of our territory; 
but they are nevertheless considerably higher 
than he seems to have been aware of. Mount 
Washington, the loftiest of the White Mountains, 
in New-Hampshire, is six thousand six hundred 
and thirty-four feet above the level of the sea. 
The highest of the Green Mountains, in Vermont, 
is four thousand tw^o hundred and seventy-nine. 
The Table Mountain, in South Carolina, four 
thousand. The Peakes of Otter, on the Blue 
Ridge in Virginia, three thousand nine hundred 
and fifty-five. The top of the Catskills, in New 
York, three thousand eight hundred and four. 
The highest peake of the Rocky Mountains, in 
Missouri, supposed to be a spur or continuation 
of the Andes, is twelve thousand five hundred 
feet above the surface of the sea; and James' 
Peake, on the same range, twelve thousand. 



21 



162 



NOTE 20. PAGE 122. 



It seems to us, that the author has here mista- 
ken the eflFect for the cause. The ahsence of 
"men of leisure" is occasioned, we think, hy 
the want of hereditary fortunes; and not the re- 
verse. Persons are said to he men of leisure, in 
proportion as they have enough to support them- 
selves without exertion. 



NOTE 21. PAGE 126. 

To these exceptions, (of the bank of Pennsyl- 
vania and the capitol of Richmond,) we would 
add some others, which we think equally enti- 
tled to it. 

The exchange of Baltimore, and the Catho- 
lic cathedral in the same city, as far as it is fin- 
ished, both designed by the architect of the 
bank of Pennsylvania, (B. H. Latrobe, Esq.) 
the bank of the United States, in Philadelphia, 
designed by one of his pupils, (Mr. Strickland) 
who does so much credit to his profession, and 
has in the building in question, furnished so pure 
q, model of Grecian beauty; the battle-monu- 
ment at Baltimore, designed by Maximilian 
Godefroy, Esq. occur to us at the moment, as 
equally deservingof admiration. 

Had the capitol of Washington been finished 
in accordance with the original plan of Mr. La- 
trobe, which we have seen engraved, (by 
Sutherland) it would claim exemption likewise* 



163 

but it has been utterly disfigured by the immense 
dome which overshadows it, destroying its sym- 
metry and violating all propriety. Not its hall 
of representatives, nor senate chamber, nor 
eastern portico, can rescue it from the censure 
it deserves. 



FINIS. 



ERRATA. 

'Page 11, line 27. for spareness read sparseness» 
I'ag'e 16, 1st line, of note for Products read Jievenue. 
Page 52, insert ^Chap. V."ia the space over "T//e Armi/J- 
Page 89, line il, for"ftoe" read'VAoie." 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




012 052 420 3 Q 



